


The Warmth of Summer

by tsukithewolf



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: After Story, Anxiety, Discussion of canon compliant trauma and situations, Discussions of Suicide, Fluff, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Hallucinations, Headspace, Kel being Kel, Lingering tones of depression, Mentions of past trauma and angst compliant with the game, Reconciliation, Slow Burn, Takes place after the Good end, The healing of the heart, down to earth, non-explicit suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 62,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29124927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukithewolf/pseuds/tsukithewolf
Summary: One year later, it's summer vacation once more and the old group of friends decide to gather to make some new memories together as promised. Bolstered by the support of Basil and the faith in his friendship with everyone, Sunny promises himself that they will talk about the past five years.(For those looking for a continuation after the game where we spend more time with the kids, I hope you find this one suitable!)
Relationships: Aubrey & Basil & Hero & Kel & Sunny (OMORI), Aubrey & Sunny (OMORI), Basil & Sunny (OMORI), Hero & Sunny (OMORI), Hero/Mari (OMORI), Kel & Sunny (OMORI)
Comments: 385
Kudos: 731





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very much in love with Omori, and I wanted to write a story for it. A little bitter, a little sweet, and hopefully a story full of warmth that these friends brought us while seeing them interact with each other. My desire is to make this feel like a canon continuation of the story, though much more down-to-earth than the original story considering it's not a psychological story.
> 
> Sunny in this fic isn't exactly someone with any issues with talking, he's just a pretty quiet guy who doesn't talk unless he has something in particular to say. I didn't want to use the 'selective mute' tag just in case I was using it incorrectly.
> 
> There will be a couple of different headcanons/interpretations of characters in this that I believe would be canon for what happens after the good ending. So, I'm hoping to make this story feel like a nice after story to the canon story.
> 
> This story is primarily self-indulgent, so I don't exactly have much of a plan for it nor an updating schedule or such. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it. And if you want, I'd love to hear any thoughts you may have.

The phone sat in the same place it had always sat, menacing Sunny every time he had passed by it with every day that ticked by. Usually he could ignore it. It was just a visual reminder of the task that he had continued to put off even while knowing the deadline was approaching. The dark tendrils that seemed to creep off of it and reach for his wrist weren’t real, but he imagined that they were sometimes. Nowadays he was much better at telling the difference between his active imagination and reality. The lines no longer blurred even if he liked to pretend they did once in a while for amusement purposes. 

He stood in front of the cordless phone today with palms that were unreasonably sweaty. He could hear the gentle whooshing of the fan as its blades moved lazily above him. Outside there was a single blaring siren from a police car or an ambulance before it faded out with distance. The apartment was quiet without his mother there with him filling it with the sounds of life. Sunny preferred it that way.

This really shouldn’t be that difficult, he thought. It wasn’t like it was the first nor the last time he would use a phone. He wasn’t scared of it, exactly. He wasn’t really one for talking, though, so he didn’t really use it much at all. The growing advancements in cell phones and the capability to text was quickly becoming his favorite means of communication even though he couldn’t really use his own phone too much. He only had a track phone, after all, and he couldn’t waste his minutes texting too much. Emailing took too much time as well. He knew he should just make the call.

Sunny pulled a folded note from his pocket and placed it on the spot next to the phone. The fold was thick and weakened from where it had been opened and closed repeatedly over the past year. The ink on the paper was a little faded as well from when Mewo had jumped up onto Sunny’s desk and had knocked his water bottle onto the paper the one time he had seriously considered utilizing the information written there. The condensation on the outside of the bottle had soaked into the paper. It was still legible, at least.

The dark, waving tendrils extended out from the phone once more, creeping closer to his body with each beat of Sunny’s elevated heart rate. He swallowed thickly. He was nervous.

He decided to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to calm down. It wasn’t as scary as it seemed. He could do this. He just needed to focus.

He opened his eyes and the tendrils were gone. Though his expression hadn't changed much, he could feel the way his eyebrows had dipped a little. He wished Mari was there. He could clearly hear her voice encouraging him. Being afraid of his friends wasn’t something he wanted to do and she knew that just as well as Sunny himself did. He glanced over his shoulder as if she might be there, but instead only saw Mewo snoozing on the head of the couch. The tip of her tail curled slowly and released in calm intervals. 

Sunny turned back to the phone. How long had it been since he had heard any of his friends’ voices, now that he thought about it? He believed that the last time they had spoken was in the hospital. Since then, communication has been scarce, but it wasn’t gone. Sunny was grateful that they chose to talk to him at all, if he was honest. He wondered if they would appreciate a call from him? Talking through text on a screen was so much easier. There wasn’t a need to worry about tone or facial expression. No chance to see the disappointment or anger or frustration on their features. But there was also no chance to see their smiles or laughter at jokes either. It was something that he had missed.

He had spent four years alone with only the imagined sounds of laughter and projected joy on his friends’ childhood faces. He had grown past the need for that now. He knew that if he made the call that at least one of them would be happy to receive him. The matter was who to choose, he supposed. He had all of their phone numbers but that only added pressure about who to make the phone call to. He could choose just one, but it felt wrong to do that. He sighed from his nose.

If he called Kel, then he knew the others would find out in no time that he had called, but he also knew that he might be on the phone for who-knew-how-long. If he called Hero, then he knew the other would gladly make small talk with him, but it was also kinda hard to face Hero considering... everything. Aubrey would like him to call and would probably keep him on the phone for the shortest amount of time, but she was one of the hardest ones to call now since she was so different from what he remembered. Basil would be the easiest to talk to, but Basil also had the hardest time talking with the others. They all had their pros and cons to them. 

_ You have to make a choice eventually. Don’t be scared! You’ve got this! _

Imagining his sister’s voice wasn’t something that was completely healthy, his therapist had told him, but Sunny didn’t exactly feel like putting the effort into trying to stop it from happening either. He had spent a majority of his life seeing and hearing things that he only imagined, though the level and quality of how real they looked and sounded had changed after… after Mari’s death.  Therapy helped with coping with reality, but in the end Sunny had always been someone who had lived half in his head when he was alone anyway. That wasn’t something he was looking to change entirely, but rather he was learning to get used to the real world once more. Headspace wasn’t what it once was, and that was for the best. There were other adventures he could be having. The first step was to make a phone call.

Okay. 

He grabbed the phone then and made his decision. He dialed Hero’s number and brought the phone to his ear. The sound of his heartbeat was loud in between the ringing. It was just far too quiet in the apartment. Maybe he should turn on the television or something just for some background noise. He stared at the phone dock while he waited.

“Hello?” Sunny’s heart leapt to his throat briefly at the sound of Hero’s voice. Ah, he was even more nervous now. He blinked a couple times quickly. “...Hello?” Hero repeated, his voice still polite but confused when Sunny didn’t respond.

“Um.” Sunny tried to say. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t get the words out. It seemed he didn’t need to try too hard, though. Hero’s voice changed entirely as it filled with recognition.

“Sunny, is that you? Hey! How are you?” The warmth in his tone did wonders to ease some of Sunny’s worries. There was a part of him that still feared persecution from his friends after everything that had happened. Even after all this time, he doubted that fear would leave him anytime soon. That was part of the reason he was so determined to go through with this.

“H… Hi.” He said. “I’m… okay. How are you?”

“I’m doing great! Well,” he laughed a little, wry smile clear enough in his voice that Sunny could see it in his mind’s eye. Hero had changed since they were kids, but not too much, “as great as I can be. I’m packing up to head back to Faraway Town for the summer. You, uh, saw what happened last time I came home from college.”

Sunny remembered the exuberant family reunion in Kel’s loud household. It had been starkly different from the kind of household and family that Sunny had grown used to. The noise had been jarring but familiar. There was nostalgia to be found among how easily the family had communicated and how effortlessly Sunny had fit back into that picture. They had missed a majority of Hero’s welcome home dinner that day, but that didn’t mean that Sunny couldn’t tell what his friend meant.

“Yeah.” He said simply.

“Are you still planning to come visit?” It was asked without the pressure behind it that Sunny would expect any of their other friends would push onto him, unintentionally or not. Hero had always been good about that. He was the older brother that Sunny had never had but had always wanted. In a perfect world, maybe he really would’ve been family by now. Hero had that way of encouraging Sunny’s answers without putting the pressure of too much expectation upon him. Sunny still didn’t know whether or not that should be as big of a relief for him as it was.

“...That’s why I called.” He moved over to the couch so that he could pet Mewo while he talked. The cat murred as she was awoken by his touch before she closed her eyes again. Petting her always calmed him down. He felt a little bad for his sweaty hands, though. “My mom said it was… it’s okay to do that thing. I have money I can bring with me. Do… Should we… What we talked about before...”

“Oh!” Hero cried, surprised and delighted at the same time. Then he cleared his throat with embarrassment. The surprise had been too close to shock. “Yeah, of course! Yeah! W-Wow, okay. You never said whether or not you were interested, haha, so I wasn’t sure. No problem! Okay, we should let the others know! I’ll go ahead and pay for everything, so just make sure you bring the money to pay me back for your portion.”

Sunny’s hand buried itself deeper into Mewo’s fur. He felt guilty and ill. He had surprised his friend, huh? Maybe it had been one of those random suggestions that hadn’t been meant to be taken seriously. Kel liked to come up with ideas all of the time, but they had hardly followed through on any of them. Like that idea to do a secret Santa through the mail that they never actually did. Or for Sunny to commute to high school in Faraway Town despite the fact that he wasn't in the same grade as the others anymore and had to play catch up with his schooling. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up. Too late now, he guessed? “Th… Thanks. I will.”

“Hey.” Hero’s voice softened a little in mild reprimand and comfort at the same time. “It’s gonna be fun, I promise. Kel will be thrilled, and I’m sure Aubrey’s been looking to get away for a while too. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of it all!”

Right. He needed to trust his friends. This conversation was going well, after all. He was looking forward to this. He wanted to do this.

“Hm… How about we tell everyone in person when you come back to town?” Hero suddenly asked before Sunny had a chance to respond to his assurance. “Let’s keep it a secret until then. Knowing Kel, he’ll get way excited before we even have a chance to get everything settled. We don’t need to worry about him or Aubrey, but maybe you should be the one to talk with Basil? He’ll probably need the extra time to get everything confirmed with his parents.”

That was just how it was between everyone now. Despite everything that had occurred, Sunny could tell there was an irreversible scar that covered their friendship because of his and Basil’s actions. It was only made worse for Basil when the boy had taken on a little more of the burden of their friends’ shock and horror in response to Sunny having been the one to finally expose the truth. It wasn’t said with as many words, but Sunny knew that he was the one closest to Basil after all this time out of anyone in the group. There were some things that couldn’t be completely repaired even if they can be worked around.

“Sure.” He said.

“Great! Alright, I’ll leave it to you.” A silence hung between them filled by dead air. Sunny could hear Hero moving around on the other side of the line. There was the sound of a zipper opening or closing and the shuffle of clothing brushing against skin. He really was packing, then. Sunny wished he was a better conversationalist, but he had never really been one to take the lead and Hero was usually too polite to completely dominate a conversation without either Kel or Aubrey there to bounce off of. Luckily for him, Hero knew this as well. “I’m gonna let you go then. I’ll give my parents the heads up about you coming over. Just send us a message on the time you think you’ll show up, alright? We’ll be sure to have a bed set up for you. Sound good?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Cool. Bye then, Sunny! It was great hearing from you!”

“You too.” 

They both hung up, and Sunny’s heart felt lighter. He walked back to the phone dock and put it away. His brow softened as he folded the paper with his friends’ numbers on it once more and pocketed it before he sat down on the couch with a sigh. He grabbed the television remote and turned on the TV to some kind of colorful cartoon movie, though he didn’t pay much attention to it. The noise was nice. He closed his eyes and simply listened.

His fears were different now, a year later and a year older than he had been the last time he had faced his phobias head on in his mind. These fears weren’t nearly as easy to defeat. His therapist said it was anxiety, but Sunny still felt his feelings were well-founded. The paranoia that his friends secretly hated him was not one that would go away anytime soon, not the least of which because Sunny still hadn't fully forgiven himself and didn't feel like he deserved forgiveness despite how much he knew that Mari would want him to. But that paranoia was also the main reason why he was simultaneously fearing and looking forward to going back to his hometown and seeing everyone once more. If there was one thing he had learned, it was that confining himself to only his mind and his thoughts would allow that darkness to grow and poison what memories he had until he wasn’t sure where the shadows ended and reality began.

His fingers gently touched the edge of his eyepatch and traced the edge of it. The only way he could learn the truth was if he trusted his friends and faced what was to come. For better or for worse, life went on. The fact that over this past year all five of them had managed to slowly but surely communicate more over messages proved that. It had been stilted at first, and at times there were large gaps between when some of them would respond to their group chat, but now there was a relatively steady flow of conversation. Basil, Kel, and Aubrey still went to school together, so Sunny could only assume they did most of their talking in real life. The one person he talked with the most over text was Basil himself. Basil was the only one that Sunny felt like had forgiven him entirely. Sunny wished he could say he felt the same towards Basil, but there was a part of him that still resented the other boy and probably always would. Sunny would still say he was his closest of the friends, though. They were tied by fate together.

He was sleepy. The air conditioner and the fan was on, but the couch was so soft and comfortable and warm. Mewo stretched as she got up before she hopped onto the seat next to Sunny. He laid down on the couch and the cat curled up in crooks his arms. Her purrs filled in the gaps between the noise of the television as she butted her head under his chin before she settled down in preparation of another nap. Sunny closed his eyes. He had plenty of time left in the day, after all, and he wasn’t going anywhere at all. He’d contact Basil after a short nap.


	2. Seven Days Left

The car pulled to a stop as it bumped up just a little bit against the curb. Sunny climbed out of the passenger seat and opened the rear door in order to pull out his suitcase. He shifted it in his grip as he stepped onto the grass next to the road and leaned down just a little as the driver’s window rolled down and his mother smiled at him softly.

“Here we are!” Her voice was cheerful enough, but then again it always had been. Her eyes very pointedly did not look at the house next door as she reached out to pat Sunny’s cheek once before releasing him. “Be safe, honey. Mommy is only a phone call away, so don’t be afraid to send me a text or phone call on how you’re doing! Be sure not to cause any problems and I’ll be back to pick you up on Monday.”

One week. He was going to be in Faraway Town for one week. It was both too fast and too short at the same time. 

“Tell the boys I said hello! Remember that Mommy loves you! Bye!” She rolled up the window as Sunny gave her a nod and a little wave. He watched the car drive away down the road and felt the silence of the small town wash over him. Familiar cicada cries filled the air as the sun beat down on Sunny’s skin. His neck felt hot under the collar of his button-up shirt. The vest was probably a bad idea, but he would be inside soon enough. The air was cleaner here, he noted. He had gotten used to the noisy streets of the city. Faraway Town, in contrast, was surprisingly quiet.

Over the sound of a car passing by him, Sunny could hear the leaves of the trees rustling as a gust of wind blew by. His eyes followed the direction of the wind to where his old house used to be. Everything about it was the same, yet there were plenty of differences too. Different lawn decorations and plants were in the plant beds. His pinwheel was gone from the front yard. There was a vehicle in the driveway. Even from where he stood, he could feel the life that came from the house. It had been missing from it for years. He could see the images of himself with his younger friends playing with Hector in the front yard as water balloons were thrown at each other. Their screams of delight and calls of their names filled his ears. For just a moment, Mari looked at him with the brightest smile on her face.

Sunny blinked as the shifting of a nearby tree’s leaves caused the sunlight to rebound off of window glass and temporarily blinded him. He took a step aside and out of the direction of the sunbeam. The images in the yard were gone. His heart clenched and ached. Heat gathered behind his eyes. Then he took a deep, steadying breath before he released it slowly. He came back to himself and felt the weight of the suitcase in his hand. His forehead was getting sweaty from standing under the sun. Seeing his old house hurt worse than he had anticipated, but not as much as he had feared. He was okay.

He turned his attention to the house next door and his destination. He only had to walk a couple of feet before he had stepped past the fence that marked the property’s boundary. The burden in his heart lightened just a little bit, but the weighty darkness there was replaced with something more gaseous and poisonous. It was a familiar feeling of anxiety. He swallowed against the sensation of his heart creeping up his throat. He just needed to knock on the door. He’d never really been afraid of charging forward and doing things that most people might find nerve-wracking. It was only because of who he knew would be on the other side that he was nervous to begin with.

“BARK!! BARK BARK!!” Sunny nearly jumped a foot in the air as a ball of orange and white dashed out from the nearby doghouse and charged at him, barking up a storm. The Shiba Inu dog jumped at him but didn’t make it higher than his waist with its short legs. It ended up with its front paws landing on its thighs as its tail wagged enthusiastically. Sunny only had a moment to pet it before the dog started running around him, barking more. Sunny put his suitcase down to crouch and pet it some more. That seemed to make the pup content as it rolled over and back onto its feet again.

The door to the house was thrown open without a care for how much the force might affect the doorframe, and Sunny looked up to see the tall figure of Kel there. He beamed, dark eyes sparkling with that same comforting joy and energy that Kel had always seemed to embody. He was dressed in a tank top and shorts today, though he didn’t have his usual basketball player look to him. It was good to see that he hadn’t changed all that much.

“Jeez, Hector, calm down!” Kel scolded before he dashed out onto the lawn, careless of wearing shoes as he addressed Sunny. “Sunny! You’re finally here! Man, I was expecting it to take a lot longer! Glad you’re here already, though.” He grabbed Sunny’s suitcase for him as Sunny stood up and brushed his knees off. Kel’s smile dropped to something almost serious. “Look, I’m gonna level with you here, Sunny. Mom’s going CRAZY in there! Me and Hero have been trying to hide up in the bedroom with Sally to keep away from her and her cleaning rampage, but I know it’s a matter of time before Hero gets dragged into her crazy mess. So, now that you’re here we’re all gonna break out! Got it?”

Sunny took the sudden flow of information in with all the skill he had the last time he had dealt with Kel in person. That is to say, he simply nodded and went along with anything the other boy said. One year ago it had been pretty easy to get on Kel’s wavelength considering it hadn’t really felt like much had changed between Headspace Kel and real Kel, but he hadn’t interacted with him like this in a year. He was a bit rusty. Going with the flow was the only choice he had.

“Cool! Let’s go then!” Kel led the way back into the house with Sunny right behind him and called out loudly, “ **SUNNY’S HERE** !!” He spun back on his friend and gave a wry smile as he said in a normal voice, “It’s better to get this part over with quickly. Oh, just bring your shoes with you so we don’t need to really stop by the door on our way out. The sooner we leave, the better.”

Sunny couldn’t really imagine why Kel’s mother would be so worked up about Sunny staying over like this, but he would trust the other boy’s opinion on the matter. He was sure the woman herself would show up any moment now. He could hear movement in the kitchen. As predicted, the woman of the household appeared looking a little frazzled and with a large frown on her face. She pointed her duster at Kel.

“Kel! Don’t yell so much in the house!”

“Aw, mom, it’s fiiiiine! After all, Sally’s wide awake and with Hero! It’s not a big deal!” Kel said.

His mother didn’t bother to respond and instead turned on Sunny. She smiled and her tone lightened significantly as she caught sight of him. “Welcome, Sunny! My, look at you! You’re looking so much healthier than the last time I’ve seen you! C’mere, c’mere!” She beckoned to him. Sunny carried his shoes with two fingers as he got closer. Her hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. There was something soft in her eyes that he had long become familiar with. Most people held at least a little bit of pity for him upon seeing his eyepatch. It was unusual to see a kid his age with such an accessory. However, she made no mention of it and simply said, “It’s so good to see you again. I wasn’t really expecting you so early, though!” She shot a pointed look towards Kel.

“I didn’t know either!” The boy whined. “Let him go, mom, we’re headed upstairs!” Kel’s mom released Sunny, only for Kel to replace her and push him towards the stairwell. “We’ll be back down later!” He called to her as Sunny got his feet under him as he was rushed away. “Hurry, hurry!” He whispered low enough for only the other boy to hear. Sunny hurried up the stairs, missing whatever Kel’s mother said as they left. Kel was snickering under his breath deviously as they successfully escaped from whatever his mother might have possibly been planning and made it to the top of the stairs. “Haha, success!” Kel pumped his fist as he took the lead and opened the door to his room. “Look who it is!” He called as he entered.

Sunny glanced around the bedroom as he closed the door behind him. Nothing had really changed here either in the time he had been gone. He spotted Hero on his bed with a much-bigger Sally seated in his lap. He was waving her arms around when he spotted Sunny and smiled. “Hey, Sunny!” He looked to his sister. “Sally, say hi.”

“Hi!” Sally called cheerfully, extending a hand out to flex and close her fingers in greeting.

Sunny gave them both a wave.

“You’re here early.” Sunny’s eyes fell on Aubrey as she paused the game system and leaned back on her hands to gaze at him. Her hair was a little shorter than the last time he’d seen it and her bangs were pinned out of her eyes with two simple hairclips. She blew a bubble with the bubblegum she was chewing until it snapped as it burst. He waved to her as well. “Now we can finally get out of here, right?”

Sunny looked around the room but didn’t spot Basil. He didn’t say anything about it, though. Just the fact that he was here among his friends made him feel better, but also just a little worse. It was a bittersweet kind of stress.

“You guys keep saying that… but I don’t feel right about just leaving.” Hero said as he placed Sally on the ground in front of some baby toys. Kel took Sunny’s suitcase over to his bed and placed it on the floor before throwing himself onto his messy bed. “Mom said-”

“Mom always wants something! Don’t you worry at all, Hero! I have the perfect plan!” Kel sat up on his elbows, eyes sparkling. “We’re going to tell mom that Sunny’s been  _ dying _ to get some of Faraway Town’s homemade baked goods from Othermart because he can’t get anything like it in the city! And we’ll just… find stuff to do! She doesn’t need our help with cleaning, and since most of the food stuff is just gonna be picked up from Faraway Plaza anyway and she’s gonna send us to do it. If we’re already out, then it’s no big deal!”

“...He has a point.” Aubrey pointed out. “I was told we were leaving as soon as Sunny got here anyway.”

Hero still didn’t look totally placated. He had that nervous expression that Sunny recognized was almost solely related to going against what his mother wanted. It seemed he was still bad at saying no to her. “I don’t know… Do you actually want to go, Sunny? You just got here. Are you tired?”

Sunny shook his head. “I… don’t mind.” He said.

“See! There you go!” Kel sat up properly and clapped his hands. “There’s not much to do in town, but since Sunny’s here who knows what we’ll find! We can’t hoard him to ourselves, y’know?”

“Ugh, shut up already. Are we seriously gonna use his first day back to do chores or something like last time?” Aubrey asked. She pushed herself to her feet to stand up in a stretch. “No, thanks. I’ll find something else to do.”

“Aww, don’t be like that!” Kel said. “You like helping people too!”

“Yeah, I love wasting my time getting grannies their medicine and stuff.”

“You so do! I’ve seen you do it for Charlie’s mom all the time!”

“That-! That’s different!” Aubrey cried, flushing just a bit. 

“Hey now, let’s not fight.” Hero finally interrupted. “We’ll just do what Sunny wants to do since he’s the one visiting.”

“Yeah, and what Sunny wants to do… is go get some goodies from Othermart!” Kel declared. He looked to Sunny. “Right?”

In all honesty, he wouldn’t mind getting some cookies or something. He had no idea what Kel’s family had planned in terms of dinner, but it was probably a long time for now. As warm as it was outside, he liked it best when he was just hanging out with his friends. Since Kel and Aubrey were clearly antsy to get going and do something else, the best choice was to find something outside to do.

“Right!” Kel answered for Sunny before the boy could even say anything.

“...Jeez.” Aubrey’s eyes lingered on Sunny. Her stare didn’t exactly unnerve him, but made him well-aware of just how much she had changed. Her gaze wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t as cold as it had been before they had all made up either. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking anymore. “Alright, let’s get some cookies or something. I was getting bored of your old games anyway, Kel.”

“Alright!” Kel jumped up off of his bed and scooped his sister up. Sally cried out in surprise, but then burst into giggles as her brother spun her around in a quick circle. “I’ll go hand Sally off to dad, and Hero, you tell mom we’re headed out!”

“Wha- Me?!” Hero cried. “But…”

“Cheer up.” Aubrey walked over to punch the man in the shoulder lightly. “Just let her know we’ll pick everything up for tonight or something.”

Hero sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay.” He cheered up a bit. “I’ll be right back, then. C’mon, Kel.” The brothers left the room together, leaving Aubrey and Sunny to stand there in silence. For a moment, the old friends simply gazed at each other before their eyes jumped away. How was Sunny supposed to feel in this situation. Everything was… well, everything was going well so far. Did he dare to hope that things were at least okay between them? He still didn’t talk all that much in their group chatrooms, and certainly not about anything outside of safe topics. He wasn’t exactly one for small talk, though, so he wasn’t sure what to say here.

“...Hey.” Aubrey finally called. Sunny turned his gaze back to her, “You’re looking… better. Than the last time I saw you, I mean. You took my advice?”

Going outside wasn’t exactly something he did all that often, no. He went out a lot more than he used to, but considering that he had left his house maybe once or twice a year for about three years that wasn’t saying a whole lot. He did go with his mother to explore the city a couple times, though, and he liked to go to the park a few blocks from his house on cooler days to cloudgaze sometimes. He was also able to keep down a lot more food than he used to and his appetite was better now that he was semi-regularly getting more exercise. So, he nodded to her. 

“Good. You looked as white as a ghost before. I thought you were for a while there.” She looked away once more. Sunny glanced at his feet. “...Wondering where Basil is?” She asked after a moment.

“...At home?” He guessed.

“Well. Yeah. He didn’t think he should come over. Not without you, anyway.”

Sunny could understand that. He had thought things were at least okay between Basil, Kel, and Aubrey. Maybe it was because of Hero? Basil had admitted to Sunny that thinking of Hero made him feel the worst out of everyone. Aubrey had spent years already angry at Basil, so not much had changed there even after Sunny and Basil had confessed about what had happened with Mari. But with Hero, Basil felt almost as guilty as he did towards Sunny. He probably wanted Sunny there as almost a buffer, though Sunny didn’t think that his presence would really help.

“We should pick him up.” He decided. He hadn’t gotten the chance to hang out with all of his friends together last time. He hoped things wouldn’t be too weird between Basil and anyone else, but he had a feeling with at least Kel there that things would be alright. They had all agreed to spend most of the week together, after all, just like old times.

Just like old times, making new memories. That was the point.

Aubrey didn’t respond to Sunny’s suggestion, but she didn’t need to. He simply walked away after that, leaving the room to head back downstairs where he knew the brothers would be. Aubrey followed shortly after him.


	3. Freedom

They would’ve made it outside with the bare minimum amount of suspicion if Kel didn’t immediately dash from the house like a bat out of hell while yelling “FREEDOOOOOOOOOOM!!!” before his mother had even fully committed to agreeing with Hero’s terms. Aubrey audibly slapped her own face and dragged her hand down it while Hero did a little bit of damage control. In the end, they were allowed to leave without much issue. Kel was already gone, and like he had suggested his mother was pleased to have the kids offer to go pick up the stuff they would need from the store so she could finish the cleaning. 

The group reconvened outside as they watched Kel run down the sidewalk. “He’ll be back.” Hero pointed out as they watched Kel. “So… I guess we can spend the rest of the day doing whatever we want. We can go pick up the desserts and stuff for tonight and bring them back now or later. Mom and dad are gonna meet us at the park tonight so we can have burgers and such.” Sunny’s stomach growled then, catching their attention. He felt his cheeks warm just a little bit. He hadn’t really eaten much that morning because of his nerves and because they hadn’t really had any breakfast food that he had wanted. Hero let out a little laugh. “I guess we can have lunch now, then. Pizza?’

“As much as I like pizza, I was hoping for something a little different.” Aubrey glanced towards Sunny. He was already daydreaming of how delicious the pizza pie would be. It wasn’t the fanciest pizza place in the world, and probably wasn’t even the best, but he and his mother had yet to find a place as delicious as Gino’s in the city. “Guess it can’t be helped, though. Let’s go get some.”

“Are you sure? We can look into getting something else, maybe.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine.” She looked away. “...Sunny already looks like his heart’s set on it.”

Sunny only blinked. Had she read his mind or something? Or was he getting easier to read? His mother had pointed out over the past few months that he seemed to be a little more expressive than before. He had probably been making a face without realizing it. 

“Haha, alright.” Hero said. It was then the pounding of footsteps alerted them all to Kel’s return. He used his long legs to jump the short fence that marked the front boundary of his property and stuck the landing, arms thrown in the air.

“WOO-HOOOO!!! It feels good to get that blood pumping! I swear, we’ve been stuck inside for _ages_!” He rolled his arm in its socket as Hector barked cheerfully next to him, tail wagging with excitement. “So, what’s the game plan?”

“Food.” Hero said, used to his brother’s eccentricities.

“Basil.” Aubrey corrected. That brought the brothers up short.

“Oh yeah! Basil was waiting for Sunny to come over before hanging out, right? He said he had something to do this morning. He should be done now!” Kel said. “We should go check on him!”

“Oh, was that why?” Hero rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. “I was kinda worried something was, uh, wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Kel asked, genuinely confused. “Like, with his mental health and stuff?”

Aubrey elbowed the taller boy. “Be more sensitive, stupid.”

Kel only rubbed the spot she had hit. “It was an honest question! It’s not like it’s a secret.” He looked to Sunny. “Right?” Sunny only looked away. He didn’t exactly want to discuss those topics so openly right when they had first reunited. It was awkward. “Sunny?”

“A-Anyway.” Hero attempted to recover the conversation, “I just meant…” he shook his head, “Never mind. Let’s just go.” He started walking and the others followed after him. Sunny looked over his friends and realized something that he hadn’t really noticed the last time he had seen them. He was shorter than all of them. Especially Kel and Hero. He was a full head and shoulders shorter than them. And he was an inch or two shorter than Aubrey. He had never been the tallest kid having been the youngest of the group, but he was surprised to realize just how much the others had grown. Part of him wondered if it was just because of his lack of care for his body in the past few years. Those years had been a critical time for growth, right? Or maybe he was just naturally short.

The day had a nice heat to it that wasn’t oppressing, but still thickened the air enough with humidity that Sunny seriously contemplated why he hadn’t taken off his vest back in the house. It was too late now to follow through on the plan considering that meant going back in the house and risking being caught by Kel’s mom, but that didn’t mean he didn’t wish he hadn’t done it. He just wiped off the film of sweat that was growing on his head and decided to ignore the temperature.

He was brought back to years ago as the sounds of their feet kicked up the dust of his memories of childhood days spent running up and down the sidewalks of the neighborhood. The paths were well-trodden, and looking at the backs of his friends was a nostalgic sight. He thought to himself that Mari would be so happy to see the group of them hanging out like this. It was a good idea to come here. He would’ve probably spent his summer almost completely inside of his apartment otherwise. 

He was brought out of his thoughts by the casual conversation of his friends asking him, “By the way Sunny, how are things going? You’ve never been much of a talker, but you don’t chat a whole lot with us in the chatroom either.” Kel glanced back at him, hands tucked behind his head as he walked. “You’re in a brand new place, dude! What have you been up to?”

“You don’t want to wait until Basil’s here to talk about this?” Hero asked. “We’re all going to go eat anyway, so we’ll have plenty of time to hear all about what Sunny’s been doing.”

“Yeah, and?” Kel asked. “He doesn’t have to go into details now! I’m just wondering.”

“What about Hero, then?” Aubrey suggested. “You don’t talk much in the chatroom either.”

Hero laughed a bit. “Yeah, well, it’s college. A lot of schoolwork and stuff. I’ve been volunteering too. I’ll be busier than ever when I need to start working in the hospitals and such for internships and practicing.”

“You’re still trying to be a doctor?”

“Yeah? What else am I going to do?” He gave her a confused look.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I just thought you were going to change your mind. Do something you like.”

“I like learning about medicine and helping people.” Hero’s expression softened just a little. There was that hint of sadness to his eyes that had never been there when they had been younger. Sunny was starting to grow used to seeing it. “I haven’t exactly decided where I want to go in the medical field… but I’m thinking maybe a psychologist or something. Or a therapist.”

“You’d be pretty good at that!” Kel said. Sunny wondered how Kel could always sound so genuine about everything he said. He really did just always speak his mind. He admired that about his friend. “You’ve got that kinda…” he waved his fingers a bit, “easy to talk to aura.”

“I wouldn’t mind talking to you about my issues. Y-You know, if you were my therapist, I mean.” Aubrey stuttered just a bit. 

“You think…?” Hero considered their opinions and then asked, “What do you think, Sunny?”

Considering Sunny actually was seeing a therapist, he supposed that he had a bit more insight into the field. He seriously contemplated his opinion as he pictured sitting in his therapist’s office with Hero there instead. He was certainly very gentle and gave off a good vibe. People loved Hero pretty unconditionally, so he could see a lot of his clients opening up to him. But he also knew that Hero’s heart was one that could be hurt easily. He didn’t really know how tough his friend was anymore. The old Hero probably wouldn’t have been able to do it. But could the new Hero handle such darkness that could be in a person’s heart?

In truth, he still wanted Hero to become a cook. He knew that his friend still enjoyed cooking and that he was great with it. Him and Mari used to cook all of the time together, and Sunny remembered kneading dough with Mari as she had gone off about how she couldn’t wait for Hero to become a cook. She had wanted to eat his delicious food forever. The last time Sunny had hung out with his friends Hero had said he hadn’t had time for it anymore, but he had a feeling that had just been an excuse to avoid remembering those times as well. He didn’t know if things were different anymore for Hero.

“I think…” Sunny finally said after a period of silence, “that you would be good at it. If… If you think you can handle it.” There, that worked. A gentle warning, but still encouragement. Sunny wanted to be someone who could encourage his friends to pursue the desires they had. Being in the medical field was going to be tough no matter what. If Hero thought he could handle being a doctor overall, then he would probably be fine no matter what he set his mind to. He had always been that type of person, after all.

Hero’s grateful smile made the serious thought process worth it. “Thanks, Sunny.”

“I still think you should become a cook, though.” Kel said easily enough, and Sunny was aware enough of the atmosphere that he could see how even Aubrey reacted to that one. “You’re super good at it, and you have fun. Plus, you get to make a ton of people smile with your food!”

“You’re still pushing for that? Jeez, imagine what mom would say if I suddenly switched career paths.” Hero shook his head.

“Seriously, who cares what she thinks? It’s _your_ life! You should do what you want!” He grinned and jabbed a thumb at his own chest. “Just like me!”

“Changing careers and choosing not to focus on your grades aren’t the same thing, Kel.” Aubrey said with exasperation.

“I’m planning to cruise on a sports scholarship!” Kel announced proudly. “I’ve been working pretty hard to get better at basketball! You’ve been to one of my games, right Aubrey?”

“No.”

“Aw man, for real?” He frowned in disappointment.

“Fine. I might have ended up at one of them since we were already hanging nearby.”

“Haha, then you’ve seen how good I am! Hero, we should totally play a match while you’re in town! Maybe we can get Aubrey’s friends to join in and we can all play together at the court! What d’ya say?”

“Uh, we’ll see Kel.” Hero said. He looked a little relieved at the change in topic. “I wouldn’t mind taking you on, though. We can ask the others later. Not today, though.”

They arrived at Basil’s house then. Sunny stood at the back of the group as Kel went ahead to knock on the door. Sunny wasn’t sure what exactly he had been expecting upon arriving, but the sudden seizing of his heart wasn’t one of them. His vision swirled for a moment before he caught himself. He felt hands on his shoulders and took his hand away from his good eye to see Aubrey giving him a concerned look. She hadn’t said anything so as to not alert the brothers, but he could see her clear question in her eyes.

“I’m okay.” He said quietly. His hands were shaking a little. He could still remember the looming darkness in Basil’s room. The desperation on his face as they had attacked each other. Sunny didn't remember the specifics of what had occurred at that time. Reality and imagination had blurred the lines that night in the darkness that had only been penetrated by the full moon’s light that had come in through the windows. His doctors had said that the damage to his eye had come from a blade after Basil’s psychotic incident, but Sunny still remembered how the Something surrounding Basil had attacked Sunny’s chest. The proof of his own injuries combined with Basil’s had told a different story about how things had played out, but even now Sunny didn’t know for sure what had happened that night. If it hadn’t been their Somethings attacking, Sunny could’ve just used his pepper spray, right…?

Well, that hardly mattered now.

The door opened and Polly called out a greeting to them all. Aubrey gave Sunny one more look before she released him. He was okay. He wasn’t scared. Some memories simply carried some damage with them when that door was opened. He would be fine.

“Is Basil here?” Kel asked.

“He’s actually not.” Polly admitted. “He went to Faraway Plaza in order to buy some stuff. It’s probably for his flowers, knowing him. If you hurry, you can probably catch him.”

“Oh cool, we were headed there anyway. Thanks, Polly!”

“It’s good to see you all again.” Her eyes landed on Sunny, then. Her face twisted before she caught herself. The sight of him probably wasn’t one that brought back good memories for her either. She had been with the group when they had found Basil and Sunny that night, after all. He didn’t doubt it had been a bit of a gruesome sight. However, her face cleared and it was friendly once more. It had only been a surprise. Most people were surprised by Sunny’s appearance. “Is that you, Sunny? Welcome back! Basil’s been looking forward to seeing you again. Let me know if you guys need anything, okay?”

“Will do!” Kel saluted her before she waved and closed the door. “You heard her! Let’s head over to Faraway Plaza. Basil’s the type of guy who could spend hours in Fix-It’s gardening section. Let’s go find him and go eat!”

“Sure.” Hero agreed as the group set off once more. It suddenly occurred to Sunny that maybe people might be wary of him and Basil reconnecting. Basil had been briefly institutionalized after he’d gotten out of the hospital considering everything that had occurred. Sunny had gotten away with not following in his steps because his own attacks had been deemed as self-defense. They had talked together through messages when Basil had gotten out, but this would be the first time seeing each other in person again. Sunny hadn’t even considered that the responsible thing would be to be concerned about what might happen between him and Basil from an outsider’s perspective. He didn’t have any kind of worries about that, though. Basil hadn’t been the one to attack him. It had been Something. And Something was gone now. 

There were many things that Sunny had resolved to do while he was in Faraway Town with his friends. Reuniting with them all and hanging out as a group was one of them, but one of his major goals involved talking with Basil about… everything. They needed to do so. Even if Something was gone, he knew that Basil needed support about what had happened. He didn’t know if his friends were prepared to talk about it, but Sunny was. He was as ready as he was going to be. He just needed to find the right time now.

Sunny’s hand came up to rub at his chest just a little bit. He was looking forward to seeing Basil again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have plans for these kids to actually talk about, well, deeper stuff. Including going into their issues and even maybe Headspace, but I want it to be a bit of a slowburn. After all, in the game they didn't just jump into heavy stuff at random.
> 
> I had forgotten how fun it is just to write dialogue scenes. Especially just these guys hanging out. I hope I'm getting their characterizations right since it's my first time writing them.
> 
> I love Kel sm. I love them all, but I love Kel.


	4. Reunion

Very little had changed in the time that Sunny had been gone. He supposed that he had expected that, and yet it had still caught him by enough surprise that he took the time to look at his surroundings as they had walked around and headed to Faraway Plaza. His stomach growled again as they got closer to the source of the greasy smell in the air. His mouth watered. But they passed by it to continue to their current destination.

Fix-It was still the same as usual. The same half-asleep attendant was at the register and the shelves had tools that were all mixed up. Sunny figured that if he got bored maybe he could make a quick buck doing the job that the attendant clearly didn’t like doing. Maybe next time he could help to pay for food sometime this week. He had money from his mother, but he recalled feeling a small bit of pride doing the jobs on his own. It had been busy work for sure, but the money had been nice for someone who didn’t have a job.

Which reminded him.

He grabbed the edge of Hero’s short-sleeved shirt as Aubrey and Kel went on ahead to get to the back of the store where the gardening stuff was at. He gave a little tug on it, and Hero came to a stop. “What’s up?” He asked, giving Sunny a curious smile. Sunny appreciated that Hero still seemed to always have a smile ready for him. A secret part of him had feared seeing that same devastated and haunted look on his face from that day in the hospital.

“I have the money. I had forgotten.” Sunny released the sleeve to reach into his pocket and pull out his wallet. It wasn’t a thick wallet that carried much in it other than his ID and what money he had. Also a library card that was used somewhat rarely. He was getting back into reading books. He still liked video games more. He pulled out the correct amount and handed it over to his friend.

“Oh, right! Haha, I’d forgotten too. Thanks.” Hero gladly accepted the money and folded the bills before pocketing them. “I’m glad you reminded me. Once we get Basil, we should probably tell the others the plan, huh? I know Kel’ll be free, but hopefully Aubrey can make it too.” Sunny followed on Hero’s heels as the man led the way around lamps and the stacks of paint swatches. Sections of the store were a lot brighter with all of the different types of light fixtures available, and the different styles of fans were blowing on low settings to keep the store nice and cool. Sunny wasn’t even sure the A/C was on that high considering all of the energy being used in the store.

They pushed past the thick plastic that kept the humid air of the greenhouse gardening area separate from the main store. Sunny inhaled the cloying scent of many plants and flowers that filled the area. The place had been rearranged since he had last been there, but he still liked being back there. It had a kind of secret hideout vibe to it. When they had all been kids, sometimes Kel and Aubrey had hidden among the shelves and had played while Sunny and Basil had picked out some new seeds to grow. It took a little bit of searching to find the others, but it was easy enough to follow Kel’s voice in the quiet area.

The first sight of Basil in person was a sucker punch to Sunny’s stomach. He felt his feet stutter to a stop and found himself unable to approach immediately. He had seen pictures of his friends through the chatroom that they shared. Basil preferred to send pictures of his plants whenever he did send pictures at all. Aubrey’s portion of the chatroom occasionally had pictures of her that were taken by others and were sent by her later if she liked them. Hero took very few pictures to begin with, but he would comment on the ones his friends took. Kel took all kinds of pictures of himself and his surroundings, so seeing them wasn’t unusual. But seeing Basil himself in person was just as startling as it had been the first time he’d seen him again after nearly four years. The main difference was that Sunny did not feel that numbing sensation blocking him from the majority of the emotional effect of the reunion after years of breaking his promise and abandoning Basil. He allowed himself to feel everything. Relief, fear, trepidation, happiness, sadness, guilt; there were so many different things to feel at once that Sunny wasn’t sure what to make of all of them. So, he simply breathed and felt them all, even if the force of it had caused him to halt his progress forward and join up with his friends again.

Hero paused when Sunny did and glanced back at him. Sunny could see Aubrey standing not quite with Basil and Kel, but on the other side of the table covered with small potted plants. Kel had gotten right up next to Basil and was talking animatedly with him. It was easy to approach them. They needed to do so. Sunny didn’t really know why his legs wouldn’t work. He met Hero’s worried gaze.

Whatever his expression was, it cleared the worry from Hero’s eyes. Instead, there was only sympathy there. He shot Sunny a reassuring smile, took in an exaggerated breath, held it, and then released it. “Okay!” He said quietly, as if Hero had been the one who had needed a moment to compose himself. Then he went ahead and joined the others, calling out, “Hey Basil!”

Basil blinked and turned to look at him, a tentative smile on his own face as he waved a little. He had a shopping basket on his arm that had some things inside of it that Sunny couldn’t make out. “O-Oh! Hi Hero. What…” He trailed off as his eyes finally caught Sunny’s as Sunny approached. Fear crossed his face followed very shortly by that dark look of guilt that had been burned into Sunny mind. Basil’s eyes skittered away from him, and then came back. The expression was better contained this time. His smile was a little strained, but he could tell the other boy was trying. “S-Sunny! You’re here! Welcome… Uh, welcome back!”

Sunny came to a stop in front of Basil, and for a moment time stopped. His friends watched them with expectation, wariness, excitement… but none of that mattered to Sunny. He hadn’t looked Basil in the face like this since the day his wounds were still hurting him and Basil’s eye had been swollen shut from a bruise on it. He looked… great. Better than great. He looked almost like he had when he was younger. The bags that had been present under his eyes before were all but gone. There wasn’t an air of exhaustion and anxiety around him. There was no darkness pulling at him from every shadow around them. The air felt cleaner.

Sunny’s trepidation left him like water rushing from a sieve. He didn’t smile, but his eyes softened. “Hi.” He said back.

That was all Basil really needed. It was like that same weight Sunny had felt in his own chest had lifted from Basil’s shoulders. Suddenly, everything was better. It was almost like talking with him on the phone again. Basil reached out for Sunny’s hand and squeezed it with a real smile on his face, eyes a little glassy from tearing up before he blinked the sight away. “I’m… It’s really good to see you!”

Sunny nodded in agreement. It was good to see Basil again too.

Kel chose then to throw an arm over both boys’ shoulders despite the fact that it caused him to hunch over to do it. Basil was even shorter than Sunny was. “Yeah, it’s great to see everyone together again! Like I was saying Basil, we’re all gonna hang out and go get pizza! Are you hungry? You need to come with us!”

Basil knew when he didn’t have a choice as he gave a little laugh. “Uh, yeah. O-okay. Let me finish here first.”

“Buying some new seeds?” Hero asked curiously, easily looking over the tops of the boys to glance into Basil’s basket. Sunny could see a couple seed packets in there, but there were also some little pots.

“Yeah. I’m… I’m going to start on my summer garden. There were some new seeds here…” He paused and then said, “Maybe… if you guys aren’t busy… do you want to do it with me? It doesn’t need to be today! I know we’re busy. Just… some time this week?” He still had a bit of that nervous energy about him from before, but Sunny could tell he was better than a year ago. That was a relief in and of itself. He could definitely see it better in person than he had over text. 

“Boring!” Kel complained. “Gardening takes FOR-EVER!”

“It’s not that bad.” Basil murmured, unsure now.

“That might be a little fun, actually.” Aubrey said, her eyes downcast as she ran her finger over the delicate leaves of a sprout in front of her. “Do you guys remember when we all tried to grow different plants for all of us? We’d brought them to the clubhouse before bringing them back to Basil’s since we kept forgetting to care for them.”

“Oh yeah.” Hero said, surprise on his face. “I’d forgotten about it. What were they again?” He looked to Basil.

“I-I, uh, I don’t really…” Basil stuttered out.

“They were flowers that represented all of us.” Sunny spoke up then. “Roses, white tulips, sunflowers, lily of the valley, a cactus, and a gladiolus.”

“Oh wow, you remembered that?” Aubrey asked, sounding a little impressed. “I didn’t even remember the names.”

“Sunny’s always had the best memory out of all of us.” Hero placed a hand on Sunny’s head affectionately, which startled Sunny a bit. Before he really had time to register it, though, Hero had already removed it. “Are they still alive, you think? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s you, Basil.”

Basil glanced away before biting his lip briefly and gathered himself. He gave a bit of a regretful smile. “I don’t think I have them anymore. I mean… I might still have the rose bush? But… I sold a couple of my plants here… for money. I think they were included, maybe? I only have one of them left. S-sorry.”

“It’s no problem! You have so many plants that I’m surprised you can remember them all!” Kel reassured him.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll come over sometime this week and help you with your gardening.” Hero smiled. Sunny’s stomach growled once more as if in reminder. That got the brother chuckling a little.

“Sunny’s about to starve! Man, I could use some food too. Let’s hurry up and get this done and go get a pie to split!”

“No cookies?” Aubrey asked with a raised eyebrow. “After all, Sunny is ‘dying’ to have some.”

“Oh yeeaaaah! We definitely need cookies too!”

“Ah, I just need to grab one more thing!” Basil said. “Then we can go.” He split from the group to head over to the shelves where he grabbed a square planter that was a little larger than his head. He chose instead to carry it because it wouldn’t fit into his small basket.

“Here, I’ll hold that for you.” Hero offered as he took the planter from him. “That’s it, right?”

“Yeah. ...Thanks, Hero.” He gave the taller boy a small smile. “We can go now.” He led the way to the register where he paid for his items and bagged them. It was a little awkward with the planter in the bag, but it was easy enough to carry. They left the store together and stepped back out into the heat. The sun was past its peak and was creeping its way a little downward in the sky. Sunny was looking forward to finally eating. His lack of appetite was catching up to him, and opening the door to Gino’s only made his hunger all the more ravenous.

“The usual stuff?” Hero asked, taking the initiative to go order the pizza as the group of them moved towards the longest table in the place. “Any preferences?”

“All the meat you can shove on it!” Kel said.

“Put anything on it that will make sure Kel doesn’t eat all of it like he did the _last_ time we were all here.” Aubrey suggested.

“Right. Kel, save some for us this time.” Hero agreed.

“Hehe, sorry! You guys were talking so much that before I knew it the pizza was gone!” Kel seemed only a little remorseful over the event. Sunny remembered watching it all happen. He had been so impressed with how fast Kel had managed to scarf down an entire pizza that he had completely forgotten to grab a slice for himself while he’d had the chance.

“The last time? Did you guys come here recently?” Basil asked, shifting his grip on his bag. His eyes jumped around the group with a nervous energy that definitely hadn’t been there when they were all younger. 

“No, this was, uh, before Sunny left. During those last days. You were in the hospital visiting your grandmother.” Hero said. Sunny could feel how the group was hesitant to talk about those final days. He hoped to maybe get rid of that energy sometime soon. There were things that needed to be discussed, after all.

“Oh. Okay.” Basil gave an understanding, if awkward smile. Clearly he could sense the same nerves that the others had about the situation.

“...I’ll just go order the pizza, okay? Hey Kel, why don’t you go buy some cookies then? We should be able to eat them here.”

“Not a bad idea! Hero comes up with some great plans.” Kel nodded, completely on board with it. “I’ll head right next door then!”

“I’m coming with you.” Aubrey said. “Last time you got those gross Play-Doh cookies.”

“Hey! Those are good cookies! Man, we used to chow through those like crazy!” Kel huffed.

“They’re all sugar and that’s it.” Aubrey rolled her eyes.

“They’re all just sugar.” He stuck his tongue out at her as he moved towards the door. Aubrey followed after him, the two of them bickering with each other over cookie preferences. Sunny could still kinda hear Kel’s voice through the windows, so he decided to walk over to the jukebox. The CDs that he had bought, found, and had been donated during his last few days in Faraway Town were still in the machine. There were a lot of good ones to choose from.

He was still seriously considering his options when he felt a presence near his shoulder. He glanced over and found Basil there, giving him a smile. He was definitely more relaxed. “Having a hard time choosing?”

Sunny nodded once as he flipped through his choices.

“...What are these strange options? I haven’t heard of most of these.” Basil said, confused. “Were these always here?”

Sunny shook his head. “They’re… indie.” 

“Oh. Um, I guess randomize it?”

Sunny wasn’t sure that was an option with a jukebox. He decided to close his eyes and simply choose one at random. Another song was already playing, so they would have to wait for their queued song to switch on. They went back to their table in the meantime. Sunny glanced over to see Hero waiting patiently in line. He glanced towards Sunny and Basil briefly before looking away once more.

“...It really is good to see you again.” Basil caught Sunny’s attention. He turned back around in his seat to look at him. Basil’s hands played with themselves on the table. There were tiny scars on them. He looked comfortable in his overalls and short-sleeve shirt. There was a thin, pale scar on his cheekbone from where Something had cut him a little deeply. Or maybe it had been Sunny’s fingernail. He still wasn't sure. “I… I’ve missed you. A lot. How’s everything?”

Sunny shifted and pulled his chair in a little bit more at the table. He wondered what exactly to say. He knew that he was probably going to be telling the others a bit more about his life in the city once they were all eating anyway, so he settled on, “Better. Things are better.”

“Yeah.” Basil’s smile got a little wider. “Same here. Um, I know it’s summer vacation but… just remember if you need help with your summer homework, I’m just a phone call away.”

“I know.” Sunny had yet to take too much advantage of his friends’ offerings to assist him with his schoolwork. He was the same age as most of them, but he was far behind in terms of schooling. If he was going to ask anyone to assist him, it would probably be Basil anyway. Hero would be too busy even if Sunny knew he would probably drop everything to help him anyway. That was just the kind of guy he was, whether or not he secretly hated Sunny. Which Sunny didn’t completely believe was true anyway, so that shouldn’t really be a consideration. Kel wasn’t good with academics, and Aubrey, though better, wasn’t as good as Basil was, judging by her and Kel’s interactions in the chatroom.

There was a lull in the conversation, but that wasn’t unusual when Sunny was involved. Basil took it in stride and moved on to the next topic. He lowered his voice a little and asked, “Has it… Has it been weird? With the others, I mean.”

Sunny hesitated, and then shook his head. Because it was true. Things haven’t been awkward. In fact, it felt a lot like it did during those final few days before his and Basil’s fight, and before Sunny had told them all the truth about what had happened with Mari. There were some stumbles with Aubrey and especially Hero, but that just made Sunny feel better. It made it feel less like they were forcing things to be this way and felt more like… like maybe his friends had somehow managed to forgive him. It was a possibility that still felt like it was out of his reach. While he had hope in his heart, he knew his fear wouldn’t abate until he heard their decisions from them himself.

“I’m glad.” Basil’s smile was a little sad. “I was really worried about… well, mostly about Hero. Aubrey and Kel have been great. Better than great. I mean, it was rough for a little while but… I think they might… they might have forgiven us, Sunny.” He laughed a little, though it wasn’t one out of amusement. It was the same flavor of disbelief that Sunny had just been thinking about. “It seems impossible. I thought I’d never get to hang out like this again with everyone.” He paused, then said quieter, “...Mostly everyone.”

Sunny liked to think that Mari was still with them all. He had seen her around many times in this past year: on his couch, at the park, in his bed curled up near him, and sometimes at his mother’s feet as if waiting for their mother to play with her hair much like she had done many times in the past. It most likely was his imagination, but it made him feel better knowing his sister was watching over him. And knowing that she had forgiven him.

He ran his finger over the tabletop, watching as the natural grease on his fingertip left a smear on the shiny wood. “...I’m going to talk with everyone about everything this time.” He confessed. “It’s… I think we need it.”

“...You’re right.” Basil agreed. “We never got to tell them everything, huh?”

“Not just about that day.” Sunny clarified. “The photographs too. And… what I was doing while I had locked myself away. If you all want to hear that. Why I had run away.”

“‘What you were doing’?” He frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Sunny didn’t answer. He wasn’t even sure how to begin to approach that kind of topic. He’d like to discuss it with his friends, but it wasn’t exactly his priority. In a way, it felt like by telling them about Headspace he could apologize to them for being so selfish. He had run away from his problems as far as he mentally and emotionally could have. He still felt guilty for it. A quiet, secret hope was that maybe… maybe his explanation would allow them to sympathize with him more. Or maybe understand just how much Mari’s death had hurt him as well. It was a selfish desire, but one that was there nonetheless. He didn’t like that part of himself, though, so he tried not to think about it.

Basil gave up trying to get an answer out of him. Instead he said, “W-Well… I hope you get to do what you wanted. I’m… I’m here to support you. Right?” 

Sunny nodded in agreement. They were there for each other. No matter what happened during this week, he and Basil had reaffirmed their promise to each other. A new start for them both. There was no more running for them. Both boys reached across the table and grasped hands. A simple squeeze was all they needed before their hands separated once more. Sunny felt at ease.


	5. Pizza

Hero returned to the table juggling five cans of soda in his hands. They were all the same basic brand that almost every single kid drank, with the exception of Hero’s drink. He had picked out his own preference. Sunny and Basil grabbed a can for themselves, though Sunny didn’t open his yet. He didn’t want to drink all of it before the food came.

Hero took his own seat with a sigh, sitting down next to Sunny since it was the closest spot. “Man, it’s a little bit busy here today. No surprise considering they have that special going on for lunch.” He laughed a little to himself. “Too bad we have too many people. It’s just cheaper to get a full pie with Kel’s appetite.”

“Hehe, yeah.” Basil agreed. He glanced at Sunny and then back to Hero. There was an air of awkwardness that hovered over them. Sunny wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, and with Basil clearly a little out of sorts with everything it had left them all floundering a little with the small talk. Luckily, Hero was just as skilled in this sense as he was in many other ways. He cracked open his can of soda and then said in a serious tone,

“Hey… I know things are… kind of weird between all of us. It’s not like I don’t get it.” His eyes dropped, lips twisting in a way that broke his façade of confidence. He recovered quickly. “But no matter what… I want to get through this. With everyone.” He smiled a little sadly. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Th-That’s what I want too!” Basil assured him quickly. His hands trembled a little from where they were wrapped around his can of soda. Sunny used his nail to half-heartedly tug at the tab of his own drink. “I… Hero, I can’t apologize enough. I really-”

Hero held up a hand to stop him, and Basil came up short. Hero took a quick breath and released it. His brow softened. “I know.” He said simply. “Look, I, uh, wasn’t planning on really getting into this. Not here, and definitely not now. But you don’t need to apologize. I know you’re sorry. That both of you are.” His eyes darted to Sunny, who met his look head on. He could feel his heart beating a fast staccato in his chest. He couldn’t hold Hero’s gaze for long. “That doesn’t mean everything’s 100% okay. I don’t know if it ever will be. But we don’t need things to be completely okay to still be friends. We made a promise together, and I plan to keep it. I just don’t know about us constantly being at odds. It’s…” his eyes dropped, but his smile didn’t waver, “it’s not what Mari would’ve wanted.”

Sunny felt like crying. But he didn’t.

Basil’s hands tightened a little on his can. “Mari would want us all to be happy. But that doesn’t mean that… I’m hoping we can… I _want_ to talk about this. Just, haha, I guess now really isn’t the time, huh?”

Hero shook his head. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m not ready yet. Not yet. Besides!” He visibly gathered himself and attempted to lift the mood. “We’ve got an outing to plan with the others, right? Sunny told you everything?”

“Ye-Yeah!” Basil nodded, taking the out presented before him. “I’ve already gotten permission from my parents and everything! I can give you the money when we get back to my house. Do Kel and Aubrey know yet?”

“Nope, not yet. We were gonna surprise them while eating.”

“Hehe, sounds good.”

Sunny decided to open his can anyway, uncaring any longer about whether or not he might finish it before the pizza got there. He wanted something to wet his dry throat after all of that. A year had passed, but these things were hardly any easier to confront. There was a part of him that continued to whisper that no matter what his friends would always secretly hate him. This acknowledgement from Hero only helped to make that little voice louder. He refused to listen to it for long, though. He had faith in his friends. He was strengthened by the fact that they were still here with him, and that Basil was right across from him supporting him as well. They could do this.

He opened his mouth in order to say one final thing on the matter, but the bell above the door to the restaurant chimed and alerted the group to the return of Kel and Aubrey. They carried with them a paper bag. It definitely looked like more than just some cookies. The proud grin on Kel’s face also told them all they needed to know that the two of them clearly had bought more than expected.

“Oh nice! You got us soda and everything! Thanks, Hero!” He called as he grabbed a seat next to Basil. Aubrey took the free seat on the other side of Sunny and snatched up a soda can of her own.

“We got some pastries.” She explained as she lifted her bag and placed it on the table. “Instead of cookies.”

“Wait, what? The whole point of the trip was for cookies.” Hero said as he pushed the top of the bag down to expose the contents. It was a box of fresh donuts from the bakery along with some croissants. They were still warm and the icing was melting on the donuts when Hero opened the box. Sunny’s stomach growled again furiously. It was loud enough to be heard over the music.

“Pfft! Hahahaha!” Basil laughed before his hand flew to cover his mouth. But his laughter only caused giggles to break out from the others as Sunny felt his ears burn. “S-Sorry, Sunny! You just look so surprised!”

“Here you go, buddy. All for you.” Hero pushed the box towards him. Aubrey grabbed a donut while Sunny took one for himself. The first bite practically melted in his mouth as the warm dough and the sweet icing filled his senses. He hadn’t had fresh donuts in a long time either. Right from the bakery was definitely the better choice than buying them from some food chain. He kinda wanted a little bit of coffee now even though he wasn’t the biggest fan of that either.

“So what made you guys decide against the cookies?” Hero asked as Basil considered his options before picking out a croissant just before Kel snatched the box for himself to take a croissant and a donut into each hand. He took a big bite out of the sweet and spoke around it,

“Well cuz,” _munch munch_ “we thought maybe-”

“We wanted donuts instead.” Aubrey spoke over Kel, shooting him a bit of a glare. She probably didn’t like that he was talking while eating. Sunny finished his donut and stood up to reach across the table to grab a second one. One more, and then he would wait for the pizza. He wanted that glorious cheesiness.

“Okay…?” Hero seemed to be a little doubtful, but didn’t press it.

“Donuts are a good choice.” Basil said. “They’re really fresh.”

“Exactly! That’s why we grabbed them!” Kel agreed.

“Well… as long as we don’t completely fill up on this stuff. Mom’ll be upset if we barely touch the dinner she’s making.” Hero finally relented before he took a donut for himself.

“We can just have leftovers if we need to.” Kel waved his brother’s worries off.

“Riiiiight…” Hero looked less enthused about the idea than Kel did. Sunny took a napkin from the table’s dispenser and wiped his mouth before he said,

“About this weekend.” He waited to be sure he had all of their attention before he continued, “We… We wanted to go to the beach. And stay there. Can you guys come?”

“What?” Aubrey asked, eyes widening, but her voice was quickly overpowered by Kel shouting,

“HECK YEAH! No way, are we really doing it?!”

“Yeah, I already talked with Mom about it, and I’ve already rented the cabin.” Hero cleaned his hands of the remains of his treat. “We talked about it briefly before, but we figured now would be a good time to do it, y’know? We’re all here and in town, so we should take advantage!”

“W-Wait a second!” Aubrey flushed a little, flustered by the announcement. “Even me?! Where did you get this money? I don’t know… if I can pay for this.” She looked a little regretful.

“I paid for it.” Sunny told her. Aubrey’s shocked eyes turned to him. “I… had some money saved up. And it’s a birthday present.”

“What? It’s not even my birthday!” She protested, teal eyes swirling with confusion and a hint of wariness.

“Who cares? Take the gift!” Kel called to her, leaning over the table to wave a hand at her. “We all get to go to the beach again! And this time we get to stay over! Maaaaaaan, do you remember the last time we went? This time there won’t be any parents or anything! This’ll be great!”

“This is really sudden.” Aubrey muttered.

“Are you coming too, Basil?”

“Yeah.” Basil nodded, smiling softly. “I already have permission and everything.”

“Kel, you’ll just have to pay me back in time.” Hero chuckled a little. “Or by getting better grades.”

“Sure, no problem!” Kel easily agreed.

Aubrey still didn’t look too sure. Hero gave her a concerned look. “Is this weekend no good for you?”

“It’s… it’s not that. I’m just… really surprised.” She confessed. “I can go, I’ve just never done anything like this before.”

“Us either!” Kel said. “This’ll be a first for all of us, isn’t it?” He looked around the table. The others nodded. “See? No stress here!”

“Oh, if you’re worried about the sleeping arrangements, we made sure there’s enough room for everyone. You’ll get your own room, Aubrey.” Hero added.

“I wasn’t worried about that!” Aubrey hurried to say. “...But thanks.” Her smile was teasing as she added, “Not sure I could stomach listening to Kel’s snores all night anyway.”

“What?” Kel asked, offended. “I don’t snore!”

“You so do.”

“You really do, Kel.” Hero added.

Sunny nodded in agreement.

“Pfft, whatever!” Kel brushed them off. “You guys are just messing with me.”

The bell dinged at the counter then and a number was called. “Oh, that’s us! Be right back.” Hero got up to go grab the pizza as the group moved the donut box away.

“So, this weekend?” Aubrey asked. “I’m guessing we’ll be leaving on Friday, then?”

“Yup.” Basil said. “Um, we should be back sometime on Sunday, right?” He glanced towards Sunny.

He nodded. His mom would be picking him up a little early on the Monday following the trip, so he needed to be sure he was back there by then.

“Pizza is served!” Hero called as he opened the box and placed the glorious pie before them all. He also brought over the paper plates they would all be using, which the kids were quick to pull apart and separate out. Aubrey slapped Kel’s hands before he could so much as touch the pizza so that everyone else had a chance to grab what they wanted. The pizza was a little too hot for Sunny’s hands, so he let his slices cool a little on his plate in the meantime.

“Hey Hero, do you think my friends can come visit?” Aubrey asked, blowing on her pizza to cool it in her hands.

“At the beach, you mean? Sure! The more the merrier!” Hero grinned as he took a bite of his own slice. He chewed and swallowed it followed by a quick gulp of his soda before adding, “If they decide to stay over, though, I can’t promise they’ll have beds. They’re welcome to stay if they want, though.”

“Hey yeah! We could get a good beach volleyball group going then! There’s _always_ a volleyball net somewhere on the beach!” Kel said.

“I think I still have some of my old beach things…” Basil added. “Um, I can bring a blow-up ball?”

“Should we go shopping sometime before the trip?” Hero suggested. “I’m sure Dad’ll let me borrow the truck and we can head to the outdoor mall or something. I haven’t been to the beach in forever, so I was actually planning on going shopping for some trunks anyway. The ones I have don't fit me anymore.”

“That sounds fun.” Basil said. “Can, uh, I come with you?”

“Yeah, sure!”

“Alright! Shopping trip! I’ll take any excuse to get out of town for a while! Let’s do it!” Kel agreed. “And since we’re going, that means you _have_ to go, Sunny! It’s just weird if you’re staying at your friends’ house when they’re not home, right?”

Sunny huffed a quiet laugh, amused at the image of staying at Kel’s house alone. If it had been his house he would’ve probably just spent the time playing video games, but since his friends were going he wasn’t going to miss his chance to hang out with them. He’d missed out on far too much. “I’ll go.” He agreed.

As the others continued to chat, he couldn’t help the warmth he felt in his chest. He wouldn’t forget just how delicious the pizza tasted as he ate with his best friends and excitedly planned what everyone wanted to do during the week Sunny was in town. Sitting like this, he was certain that Mari was smiling from heaven. He wanted to show her even more happy times with everyone. He was really looking forward to everything that was to come for the first time in a very long time.


	6. Photographs

Despite the earlier decision that Sunny would spend the lunch break telling the others about what it was like living in the city and how he was doing there, he’d never gotten the chance. As groups of friends were wont to do, the conversation had flowed from one topic to the next without sticking on any one for too long. Sunny didn’t mind, though. His time would come. His and Hero’s stories about life outside of Faraway Town were exciting for those who hadn’t traveled too far from the small town. Not that Sunny really had much to say on the topic, but that hardly mattered.

Lunch ended and the group of friends headed back to Basil’s house to drop off the stuff they were carrying, including the leftover food that hadn’t managed to be finished off. Kel had all but completely filled up on the donuts, so he hadn't finished all of the pizza. Sunny took a moment to glance around Basil’s house, but it hadn’t changed that much. The only thing that had really changed was the strange, almost oppressing atmosphere that it’d had before. Admittedly, it churned his stomach a little to be in the place at all. The very bad memories of the last time he had been there fought with the warm pleasant memories of their childhood days. He shook his head to clear it.

Kel ended up following Basil to the boy’s bedroom, but Sunny couldn’t bring himself to join. So he, Aubrey, and Hero waited out in the living room. It was nice there. Warm. All the good memories were there, even if it was also the place where Sunny had remembered… everything. He could still see the ghostly images of Hero, Aubrey, and Kel on the couch and floor. In the darkness of that night, he hadn’t been sure what would happen to him. He hadn’t exactly felt completely like himself. Omori had been there in the back of his mind, waiting and coaxing him at the same time. It would’ve been so easy to run away that day. Maybe that would’ve been the easier choice. Sunny didn’t regret his decision to save Basil. They wouldn’t be there now if he hadn’t done it. Losing an eye had been worth it.

“You good?” Aubrey asked quietly as she joined his side. Sunny blinked and had to turn his head all of the way since she had been standing in his blind spot. Though her face didn’t exactly show her worry, Sunny could hear it nonetheless.

“I’m good.” He said. “Just thinking.”

“You still zone out a lot.” She pointed out. “Where does your head go?” Sunny seriously considered telling her the truth, but figured that it wasn’t the time. Later. He simply stayed silent. Aubrey didn’t take any offense to it. His friends were used to his lack of responses.

“It’s weird to be back here.” Hero said then. His tone was low, as if he was trying to keep monsters from hearing him. “In the daytime it’s completely different but… I can’t really imagine how you’re feeling, Sunny.”

The daytime had always been safe for Sunny. The monsters had always come out in the darkness and the shadows. Frankly, he was more concerned for his friends. He decided to spare his friends from the low-lying poison that tainted the memories here. He’d become almost good at doing so. “Do you remember Basil’s birthday here?” He moved over to the couch and sat on it. If he focused enough he could see their younger selves with party hats on and confetti in the air. The sweet smell of cake and icing. The lingering flavor of strawberry. The feeling of Basil’s Gameboy in his hands as he helped Basil defeat a boss he’d been struggling with.

That brought a smile to Hero’s face. “His 12th one, right?” He joined Sunny on the couch. His eyes were sparkling now, enchanted by the shiny memories rather than the dark ones. “It’s almost where everything started, huh? With the taking-pictures stuff.”

“The first was Christmas.” Aubrey corrected. “But Basil got the album on his birthday.”

“That was the best cake you’d made, Hero.” Sunny said.

“Haha, well, I had Mari helping me. She had been really intent on making sure it was perfect since Basil hadn’t had a birthday party like that before.”

“It was perfect.” Aubrey said, voice a little softer with wistfulness. “Basil hadn’t known how to take it. ...That year was the best.” They fell silent for a moment, each of them with their thoughts years away from where they were. Then Hero brought them back,

“Hmm… I know that it was, uh, a source of trouble for us, but maybe we should invest in a new photo album?” He glanced at the others for their thoughts on the idea. “We won’t have enough time to fill a new one, but we could start it off. If Basil’s interested in keeping up his hobby, it could be something we show Sunny the next time he visits? To keep up with everyone?”

Sunny really liked that idea. Though they wouldn’t be his memories, they would be everyone else’s. He had the first photo album, so it only felt fair that the others had one of their own.

“Who uses Polaroids anymore?” Aubrey asked. “We’d have to look kinda hard to find some. And what if we can’t?”

“Then we’ll just use a disposable one!” Hero suggested. “It’s not _quite_ the same, but then we could actually make copies of it. That way we can all have our own. What do you think?”

“...The other album isn’t full.” Sunny said. “I could… put some in there.”

“That… actually sounds really nice.” Aubrey confessed, eyes gentle with desire and love of the idea.

“Then that’s what we’ll do! Since we’re going shopping anyway, we can buy some disposable cameras for cheap. All of Basil’s old pictures helped to remind us all of the good times, so we should continue them.” Sunny gazed at Hero as he spoke and felt his heart swelling in his chest. He loved this idea just as much as the others did. He was excited to buy the disposable cameras. He was glad he had plenty of pocket money both from his mother and from saving up when he had been doing some odd jobs around his neighborhood.

“Sorry for the wait.” Basil said as he and Kel returned. “We got distracted-”

“Dude, have you _been_ in Basil’s room recently?” Kel asked Aubrey as he beamed. He bounced on his toes just a little in his excitement. “It’s like a forest in there! It’s been totally changed since the last time we saw it! I couldn’t believe it!”

“A-Ah, it’s not _that_ bad, haha.” Basil said, rubbing at his head. “I just… I had plenty of room and… yeah.”

“Really? We should check it out next time.” Hero said. 

“Do you want to look now?” Kel asked.

“I thought you were tired of being stuck inside.” Aubrey said. “We’ll look at it later.”

“Yeah, the weather’s too nice to be indoors anyway.” Hero agreed.

Sunny led the way back to the front door and held it open as the others exited. He closed it and Basil locked it behind him since it seemed like Polly wasn’t home. The sun was still pretty high in the sky. There was no point in ending the day just yet, so the group started walking. Their feet automatically directed them to the park where there would be more things to do and less chance of them feeling the need to buy anything.

“So, we were talking while you guys were gone,” Hero began, “and me, Sunny, and Aubrey were thinking about buying some disposable cameras when we go shopping. If you don’t feel like being our cameraman, Basil, then I figured we can all just use our film in any way we want. Then we can choose our favorites and print out the ones we want to keep. What do you think?”

“That sounds great!” Basil cried, eyes widening. “Oh! Um, I still have some film in my camera. We could… start today, maybe? If, uh, I find a good picture.”

“That’s super cool!” Kel agreed. “We can make our own albums and have our own copies! That’s a fantastic idea, Hero!”

“I’ll be right back, then!” Basil said before he ran back towards his house. The others came to a stop to wait for him. 

“...I’m glad you guys all like the idea.” Hero confessed as he watched Basil run off. “It’s just… You know, with going to college and such and with Sunny gone… it’s a little lonely, right? Mom and Dad said it’d be harder to make friends the older you get, and I kinda see what they mean.”

“Aw man, don’t say that!” Kel whined. “You’ve always been great at making friends! You just need to step away from your studies to do it!”

“Haha, right. Not like that Kel. I mean, like, life-long friends.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “I have buddies in college, but I’m still learning who they are. It’s different with you guys. No matter how much we change, we’re still… us.” He looked to them with quiet hope in his eyes. “Right?”

“...Yeah, I get it.” Aubrey agreed. “I’ve had a hard time making friends since I was little. I can’t really imagine going off to college and having an easier time somehow.”

Kel tucked his arms behind his head with a thoughtful frown. “Is it really that difficult?”

“Shut up! You’re good at making friends. You wouldn’t get it.”

“Nah, I get it though?” Kel shook his head. “It takes time to really get to know someone. It’s not the same as when we were little and we weren’t, like, so grown up. Things were easier back then. The older you get, the less people are real with themselves in the same way kids are.”

The others glanced at him with surprise before Aubrey burst out laughing a little. A smile played on Hero’s lips. “Couldn’t’ve said it better myself, Kel.” Then he threw himself at his brother and wrapped him up in a headlock that had Kel shouting and struggling. Hero laughed as he messed up his brother’s hair. “Luckily, I know I always have you! You can’t get rid of me easily, little bro!”

“AW, WHAT THE HECK?! LET ME GO, HERO!!” Kel shouted, only giving a token resistance against his brother’s loving attack.

Aubrey laughed more at Kel’s plight and Sunny found himself smiling just a bit. It was gone before anyone could see it, though. Sunny didn’t like smiling, but it came naturally to him sometimes.

“I’m back!” Basil called as Hero released his brother. Kel sulked and fixed his messed up hair. “Oh no, it looks like I missed something.”

“Nothing big.” Hero waved him off. “Just messing around.”

“Those are the best moments.” Basil said with a soft smile. “Next time.” He promised quietly, almost to himself, though Sunny heard him.

“We were talking about the photo album idea.” Aubrey said as the group started walking once more. They waited at the crosswalk for a car to pass by before crossing the street. “Now that it’s been brought up, I like being able to bring stuff with me when we all go our separate ways.”

“Don’t say it like that, Aubrey. It makes it sound like we’ll never see each other again.” Kel said. “We’ll be best friends forever! We can have our ups and downs, but that doesn’t change what we have, right?”

“It’s nice to have proof.” Her eyes drooped to watch their feet. Sunny followed her gaze, looking at the different shoes sizes they all had. He could easily tell whose feet were whose. It made him think of that picture in the photo album. Their feet sizes were very different now. “Memories can get hazy with time.”

“That’s true.” Basil agreed, fingering the camera around his neck. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a need for pictures.”

“I guess you’re right.” Kel said as his hair blew around his face in the wind. He tucked it behind his ear and out of his face. “I don’t think I need such a deep reason, though. It’s fun just having pictures of us around!”

“Yeah.” Hero agreed. “It’ll be something to look forward to. We’re not all going to be living in the same town all of the time, but that doesn’t mean we’ll forget either. We’ll look back on this fondly.”

“You sound so old!” Kel laughed, punching his brother lightly in the shoulder.

“I’m just saying what I’m thinking!”

Sunny’s eyes drifted away from the backs of his friends to look down the street at the houses they were passing. He and Hero no longer lived in Faraway Town. After summer ended, Basil, Aubrey, and Kel would all be seniors. He wondered if they would be moving away as well. He would really need to get better at talking on the phone or using the computer before then. It was suddenly hitting him exactly what Kel’s dad had meant about it being harder to make friends the older they got. Sunny would have to be proactive in contacting his friends. That, and encouraging them to call him too. Hopefully they would want to after the week ended. He would love to be able to come back and hang out with all of them again.

The sound of a camera snapping and a flash of a light caught his attention as Basil brought the camera down from his face. He had a small, somewhat nervous smile on his face as everyone looked at him. “Hehe, sorry. It looked like a good opportunity.”

“What did you take a picture of?” Kel asked excitedly, already moving behind Basil to look at the picture.

“It’s still developing. Here, I’ll show you guys when we get to the park.”

“Gotta say, the sound is nostalgic.” Hero said as they crossed the street once more and entered the park. There were plenty of people either relaxing or playing in the area and enjoying the day. Sunny walked over to the sandy playground, breaking away from the group with the full knowledge that they’d follow after him. He was a little old to play on the playground near his new apartment because the equipment was kinda small for him, but that didn’t really matter in this park. He planted himself into the worn comfort of the rubber swing seat and prepared to start swinging. The others gathered around Basil to look at the photo.

“Wooooow! Sunny’s looking real photogenic here!” Sunny glanced at them curiously when he heard his name. Kel was grinning as he took the photo from Basil and showed it to Sunny. It was a profile image of Sunny staring off into the distance, the wind blowing his hair from his face and a couple leaves flying around him. The angle it was at didn’t show his eyepatch. He had a wistful look on his mostly-blank face. It was the first time anyone had taken a picture of him in possibly years. He looked good.

“I had almost thought you had caught us while we were walking.” Aubrey said as Basil took the picture back and pocketed it.

“I had thought about it, but I could only see your backs.” Basil said. “Sunny just looked…” he didn’t finish. Nobody pushed him to do so. He liked the picture quite a bit. The first picture of their new photo album. Or maybe Basil would let him add it to their old one. Who knew what the future would bring?

Whatever it would be, it was going to begin with Sunny getting to swing. He loved swinging. So he kicked off of the sand, and he allowed his body to be caught in the familiar back and forth momentum. It was a sensation that brought him right back to childhood. It was very freeing.


	7. Flying and Falling

When Sunny had been eight years old he had gotten into a swinging competition with Kel. Mari and Hero had been playing on the basketball court at the time, which meant it had been primetime for their younger siblings to cause trouble. Since Sunny wasn’t the type of kid to start problems on purpose, the role of being a rascal had fallen on Kel. And since Kel was, well, Kel, he was very, very good at being a rascal. 

At the age of eight years old, swinging on a swing set meant that if you managed to get high enough to reach the top bar, you were both extremely high up and also powerful. It had been a lost bet to begin with on who could swing the highest the fastest, but Sunny had agreed to it anyway because he felt he’d had a fighting chance. He remembered how his legs had pumped to get himself higher and higher while Kel had laughed almost manically with his own joy. Sunny had felt like he had been soaring that day and had been doing well. That is, until he really had been flying.

His sweaty hands had slipped from the plastic-covered chains of the swing set and his momentum had launched him from the swings. For just a moment, Sunny had been sky-high. He had been able to see over the top of the playground equipment. He could’ve sworn that he was the tallest kid in the entire world. Maybe he could’ve even landed on the roof of a house if they had been close enough to one. It had been as terrifying as it had been exhilarating.

He had looked beneath him as time felt like it had slowed around him. He had been flying off into space, floating away like the astronauts he had seen on Saturday morning cartoons. If he’d had enough time, he might have tried to do a flip. But reality crashed in on him very quickly, and he had realized the sheer amount of danger he was in. The shocked and buoyant feeling had been replaced with fear as he crashed back to the earth with a shout that had drawn the attention of Mari and Hero.

He had tumbled into the sand, knees, bottom, and hands smarting from the impact before he had rolled to a stop. Tears had welled up in his eyes, and he had cried from the shock of it all. Kel, ever brave and fearless, had leapt right from the swing set to land next to him and ask if he was okay. Mari and Hero had run over soon after, and Sunny had been consoled by his sister with only a little bit of scolding. Hero had berated Kel as well for encouraging the dangerous activity even if neither boy had originally planned to jump off, but Kel had said that he had challenged Sunny to do it in order to take most of the blame for the small accident. Even while being scolded, he had praised Sunny for just how much airtime he had managed to get from the swing. Sunny hadn’t tried to do it again since then, but he had never forgotten that feeling of flying.

He was almost seventeen now, and the peak height that he could reach on the swing wasn’t nearly that high anymore. As his legs kicked and sweat formed on his head, he realized just how short of a distance he had actually managed to go. He was sure that if he jumped off now, he could go much farther. And probably not eat shit along the way.

Kel was, apparently, of the same mind. “Oh, hey! I have an idea!” He climbed onto the cat-shaped jungle gym until he was on the very top of it. He was a good distance from the swing set, but not too far. “Why don’t we have a jumping contest? Winner gets mad props for being awesome!”

“That’s dumb.” Aubrey said from where she sat on the other swing. She had yet to really start swinging, choosing instead to just hang out. She took no mind of Sunny joyfully swinging next to her. 

“It’ll be fun!” Kel argued.

“Wouldn’t the taller people win? You and Hero are stupidly big.”

“Then we’ll sit out!” He held out his hands, laying them flat. “All you gotta do is manage to slap my hand on the way down, and you win!”

“So… it’s not a jumping competition?” Basil asked.

“Actually, I kinda wanna try it.” Hero said. “My height won’t really help me with that extra challenge, right? If anything, it’ll just hinder me. I’m a little big for the swing set.”

“Pfft, is that the _real_ reason you wanted to sit out, Kel?” Aubrey asked with a smirk.

“No.” Kel pooched his lips playfully. “Does that mean you’re in?”

“Yeah sure, I’m in.” Aubrey said. She looked at Sunny. “What about you? You’re already swinging.”

Sunny, much more coordinated now than he had been as a child, managed to give a thumbs up without losing too much momentum. He was going to nail this.

“Heck yeah, that’s the spirit!” Kel cheered. “Basil, try to get a picture of this one!”

“Ah-! Uh, okay? I’ll try.” Basil agreed, startled. Typically he didn’t like staged pictures like this, but maybe he was making an exception here? Sunny didn’t know for sure. Maybe Basil just didn’t have the courage to turn down the request right now. It wasn’t really important to him.

Aubrey kicked off of the ground and began pumping her own legs, attempting to get momentum going and match Sunny’s pace. As she flew past Sunny on the swing, he was able to pick up the faintest floral scent from her pink hair. It distracted him briefly as he turned his head to watch her, eyes wide. She had a determined grin on her face not unlike the Aubrey he used to know. There were a lot of things that had changed about her, but that look wasn’t one of them. His heart skipped a little. She had always been so pretty.

“Who’s gonna jump first?” Hero asked. “Don’t do it at the same time!”

The swing set was rocking a little from the weight of two older teens swinging so vigorously. They would have to jump soon. “I’ll go first.” Aubrey announced.

“I’m ready!” Kel called.

Aubrey leapt from the swing set then, pointing her feet a little to gain more distance. Her hand came down and managed to slap right down on Kel’s palm before she landed a little roughly and had to drop to her knees. She jumped up soon afterwards, eyes alight with her pride, and called, “Fuck yeah!!”

“NICE!!” Kel and her shared a quick high-fived, both equally thrilled, before Aubrey caught herself. She pulled her excitement back a little, but still ended up practically glowing with her joy.

“Great job.” Hero praised, grinning. Sunny was kind of surprised the older boy hadn’t commented on Aubrey’s language, but he wasn’t going to be the stick-in-the-mud about it.

“This one’s not bad, but it’s a little blurry.” Basil smiled as he looked at the Polaroid. Aubrey moved to look at it and clicked her tongue. She looked a little pleased. Sunny would have to wait to look as well.

“Your turn, Sunny!” Kel called, readying himself once more. Sunny’s lips turned down just a bit in a determined frown. He would get this.

“Ready, Basil?” Hero asked.

“Ready!” Basil held his camera up once more. Sunny took another swing before he found the right time and threw himself off of the swing set. For just a moment in time, he was weightless once more. He had managed to get a lot more height than distance, unlike Aubrey. But Sunny couldn’t say he disliked that. He heard the camera snap a picture. It was like time had barely passed from the last time he had done this. He took the opportunity to bicycle his legs for a moment before gravity reasserted itself on his body. As he dropped, he stuck his hand out to give Kel one of the most epic high-fives he could manage. However, he didn’t quite make it that far. His fingers skimmed the tips of Kel’s and he landed on his feet, but he was off-balanced. He stumbled forward and fell face-first into the sand.

“PFFT-! HAHAHAHA!” Kel laughed as Sunny pushed himself to his knees. “THAT WAS GREAT!!”

“Guess I won that one.” Aubrey said.

“Are you okay, Sunny?” Basil hurried over to help Sunny to his feet while Hero grabbed his other arm to assist. Sunny spat out some sand and shook his head. He couldn’t open his eyes. The combination of the sweat on his face and the loose sand ended up giving him quite the facial. Apparently he was funny because the others started to giggle even more at the sight of whatever expression he had. He let them have their laugh before he started brushing the sand off.

“Oh man, you really got it. Do you need the water fountain?” Aubrey asked, helping to brush some more sand off of Sunny’s front.

Sunny shook his head. He was fine, if dirty. He sputtered a little more before he winced for real at a stab of pain. He realized pretty quickly what had happened to him. Some sand must’ve gotten under his eyepatch and into his bad eye. “Ah. Uh oh.” He tenderly tried to brush the dirt off, but it wasn’t really enough.

“What’s wrong?” Hero asked, concerned. Sunny’s hand hovered over his eye, unsure of what to do. He didn’t really want to take off his eyepatch and show the others what was left of the damage to his eye. It wasn’t exactly pretty, especially since the eye itself had to be removed. He didn't like his temporary fake eye and chose instead to wear the patch. This was an unfortunate circumstance.

He couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“Oh.” Hero seemed to realize even without Sunny telling them what was wrong. He squeezed the boy’s shoulder before saying, “Hey, can one of you real quick go to buy a water bottle or something? One that isn’t cold, if you can. I don’t really trust the water fountain to be clean.”

The others picked up pretty quickly on what was going on. “I’ll go!” Kel said. “Be back in a jiffy.”

“Are you alright?” Basil asked, nervous. The grains of sand didn’t exactly feel good to him, but he still gave a thumbs up to reassure him. He didn’t like that look of guilt on his face. He couldn’t help it as tears began to boil up in his good eye in response to the pain. 

“I’ll help you out, Sunny. Don’t worry, okay?” Hero gave him a reassuring smile.

“Is… is the wound still…?” Aubrey was hesitant to really ask. She looked younger than she usually did. There were some things that even she didn’t have full confidence in. Her question only made Basil’s face twist a little further.

“I’m okay.” Sunny reassured. “It’s… uh…” He really didn’t want to have to explain. He didn’t know how much his friends knew about the extent of his wounds. They had no doubt seen the aftermath of his and Basil’s fight, but even Sunny hadn’t known he would completely lose his eye to it until the infection had set in and it had to be removed. It had been the safer choice.

The group moved to the shade of a nearby tree and hovered nervously around Sunny until Kel came running back with some water. “Here you go!” He handed the bottle to his brother. His face was concerned as well. “Are you alright, Sunny?”

“He’ll be fine.” Hero assured them. “Uh, maybe give him some room, though?”

“Right.” Aubrey gripped Basil and Kel’s sleeves. “Let’s go over here.”

For once, the boys didn’t argue. That just left Hero and Sunny. “Can I see?” Hero asked, his voice calm and gentle. It kind of reminded Sunny of that day he had helped to rescue him and Basil from the lake. He reluctantly took off his eyepatch. There was a deep, but healed scar over his eyes now. His hair helped to hide a lot of it, but Hero carefully tilted Sunny’s head back and brushed it away. It was kind of strange to be treated like this by his friend, but Sunny liked it. Hero didn’t react at all to the damage. He slipped off his over shirt then. “I’m just going to try to get the sand out, okay?”

“There’s… My eye, it’s…” Sunny didn’t know how to finish.

That was the first flicker of shock he saw on his friend’s face before it filled with understanding. Then he cleared his expression once more. It was friendly, if a bit clinical. He really felt like a doctor for someone who was still only starting his medical journey. “No problem. This isn’t exactly ideal, but this is the best we’ve got. I’m just gonna do a quick clean. We should head back to my house after this so I can look it over better in the bathroom.”

He gave up then and let Hero take over. He poured the water onto his shirt to dampen it and then stuck his finger into it. Sunny reluctantly opened his bad eye then, exposing the socket to his friend. He kept his other eye closed, cringing a little at the sensation of Hero very carefully cleaning what sand he could get. His fingers were gentle and meticulous, but it was clear he couldn’t do things exactly how he wanted to without a smaller swab.

After a few moments, the pain abated and he seemed to finish. “There.” He said, and Sunny opened his eye to see Hero smiling at him. It was a little stained. “Did that help?”

Sunny nodded and shook the rest of the sand that was stuck to his eyepatch before he put it back on. “Thank you.” He said quietly.

“You’re welcome! Okay, let’s head back to my house real quick.”

“Do we have to?” He felt fine.

“Well… we don’t have to if you think you’re okay.” He sounded a little reluctant to say it, but he was probably just being cautious. He’d always been like that.

“I’m okay.” Sunny decided. He would properly wash his face when they got back. He didn’t want to ruin their fun by returning back to the house now. 

“...Where’s your, um, prosthetic?” He asked. “I’m sure you would’ve gotten even a temporary one, right?”

Sunny looked down. “I… don’t like wearing it. It feels weird.” He knew that he was supposed to, but he often went without wearing it. Most days he was completely fine without it. This was just an accident.

“You should wear it.” Hero scolded. “It’ll help to protect the socket.” Sunny nodded, eyes still looking away. Guilty. Hero only let out a sigh through his nose. “How are you going to go handle the beach?”

“Goggles.” he said simply. He fully planned to keep them on if he was going to go into the ocean at all. He would be fine with the big ones.

“Everything okay?” Aubrey called.

“We’re good over here!” Hero called back, motioning that they can rejoin them. Sunny rubbed the last of the water from his cheekbone and fixed his hair so it covered the top of the scar once more. It seemed his friend was done scolding him.

“...I didn’t realize your eye was still hurt.” Basil confessed, hands twisting around each other.

“It’s not.” Sunny stated, because it was true. His eye wasn’t hurt or anything. The wound was healed. There was nothing else that could be done for it, even if the scar was still pretty dark.

“He’s fine.” Hero agreed. “Though… maybe it’s time to head back. It might be time to start getting the stuff for Mom, and we need the list.”

“Yeah, probably.” Kel tucked his arms behind his head, lips pursed and thoughtful.

Sunny looked away, frustrated. He had wanted to play longer. He’d been having a lot of fun. He hadn’t meant to ruin things. He already knew that Kel and Aubrey were fed up with hanging out at Kel’s house. Forcing them all to go back seemed like a waste. And it was still a little early. 

Basil was watching him. For a while he didn’t say anything, but then he said, “H...How about you two go talk with your mom? I kinda want to hang out here a little longer. Sunny can stay with me?” He suggested.

“I’ll stay too.” Aubrey volunteered, a little hastier than necessary. Sunny blinked at her.

“Oh boo, why do I need to go then? Hero can go alone!” Kel complained.

“Come on, Kel. Help me out.” Hero coaxed, throwing an arm over his brother’s shoulders. He gave them all a smile. “We’ll probably be back in a little bit, then. We can stop by the store together, maybe?”

Sunny and Basil were relieved. Basil was visibly so. “Sure. We’ll be here.” Aubrey held her hand up, and the brothers departed with Kel complaining a little bit longer. Aubrey, Basil, and Sunny decided to go sit under the shade of the tree instead and hang out. The sun was getting pretty hot anyway. Sunny sipped some water from the bottle that Hero left behind. It was lukewarm.

Basil still appeared distressed. He sat with his legs pulled to his chest much like how Sunny sat naturally. Sunny held out his hand to him, then. He wanted to change the topic and make his friend feel better. What was done, was done. He was sure Basil wanted to apologize, but he didn’t really want to hear it.

“Wha… What are you looking at me like that for, Sunny?” Basil asked nervously.

Sunny just curled his fingers a few times, waiting.

“Show us the photos.” Aubrey finally demanded when Basil seemed to stress out a little bit more over not understanding. Her words brought some relief to his face.

“O-Oh! Right…” He pulled out the three photos he had taken and handed them to Sunny. Sunny spread them out on his lap so they could all see them. He didn’t really bother to look at the first one as he turned his gaze to the new ones. As Basil had said earlier, Aubrey’s picture of her jumping off was blurred from the motion but it was still good. Recognizable as Aubrey, at least, rather than a pink and white blur. Her legs were outstretched in front of her and her arms spread behind her with that same determined grin from earlier on her face while she was flying through the air. It looked good.

The newest picture was Sunny also in the air, but he was so blurred out that he might as well be black and white against the sky. It wasn’t a great picture. That one probably wouldn’t be a keeper, but it wasn’t up to him. He still liked it anyway. It added charm. He was sure if they wrote down a description for it, they could laugh about it in the future.

“...Taking pictures was a good choice.” Aubrey decided as she took the Sunny photo from his lap.

“...Yeah.” Basil finally agreed after a moment. His hand tentatively found Sunny’s where it was resting on the ground. Sunny rather liked the warmth of it there. He turned his hand to squeeze Basil’s. Basil relaxed a little, eyes softening. “It was.” He squeezed back. Sunny felt everything balance itself out once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna casually promote [this Omori video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0GZaxvLIC8) because I genuinely love it and want to spread how good it is to you guys. (Hint: Turn on captions)


	8. Vandal

They ended up staying at the park for longer than they had expected with Hero and Kel not returning to meet them. Sunny didn’t really mind, though, as he enjoyed spending time with two of his best friends on either side of him. The three of them were probably the quietest of the group now, but that wasn’t for lack of a conversation. Sunny gladly listened to Aubrey and Basil talk about their school lives together and what had been happening. There was gossip to be heard, and teachers to discuss. Though he had no idea who they were talking about, he couldn’t bring himself to care. He had been out of that loop for years, after all.

What mattered to him was the change between Aubrey and Basil’s relationship. Aubrey had spent years disgusted with Basil and had bullied him as a result. And Basil, who had already been in a bad place, had simply taken it like he had deserved it. Basil was never one who could fight back, not even in Headspace. It made the change between them all the more significant in Sunny’s eyes. Aubrey treated Basil much like she’d used to, and Basil smiled more. It almost felt like everything was okay.

He looked between them when there was a lull in the conversation and the three of them simply people-watched for a while. The sun was really starting to set now, casting an orange glow over the town. The sounds of the cicadas were louder, and crickets joined in on their cacophonous song. There was a cicada somewhere in the tree above them. Sunny’s head tilted back as he tried to spot it. 

“Aubrey.” He called then. He saw Aubrey turn her head to look at him before looking into the tree as well. That wasn’t why he had been calling her attention. He quickly lowered his head and met her gaze. She didn’t show her expression on her face quite as easily as she used to. It was harder to read her. Sunny could feel the push to speak. “I was the one who vandalized the photos.”

“S-Sunny!” Basil cried, shocked and horrified by the abrupt confession. He leaned in, hand coming to Sunny’s arm to squeeze it in warning.

“...What?” Aubrey asked. Her fingers curled into a fist where it was draped over her knee.

“It wasn’t Basil. I destroyed the photos.” Sunny felt fear flutter in his heart. Talking about the truth was still hard. He owed Aubrey this apology. Her and Basil both. But mostly, he wanted her to direct her anger towards him. It was his fault.

“N-No, it was me! I didn’t… I mean, I…” Basil tried to cover for Sunny again, but Sunny shook his head and stared at him. Basil’s shoulders curled a little and fell silent.

“Are you serious?” Aubrey demanded. Her voice was still low. “You did that to the photos? Why?” She swallowed, eyebrows lowering as her anger began to bubble in her voice. “Why didn’t you tell me?! Even when we talked about it, you didn’t say anything! You let me believe Basil did it all of this time!” 

“I’m sorry.” Sunny responded quietly, the thick bog of guilt in him attempting to drown his lungs. “I… I didn’t know that was why you and Basil had fought… and when you told us, I…” He hadn’t remembered, exactly. At that point he had seen bits and pieces of the puzzle of the tragedy that was Mari’s death and the fallout that had occurred from it. His memories had been scattered to protect himself. He had seen the photos scribbled out, but he hadn’t known who had done it. He had suspected, though. It wasn’t until the time was far from right that he remembered everything. And right after that, he had been hospitalized. Confessing to this crime hadn’t been right to do over the phone or over the computer. He had waited for this day.

“You _what_?” Aubrey demanded, scowling. She looked more hurt than anything else. Her eyes darted to Basil and back to Sunny. “You were too scared?!” Sunny knew he needed to respond, but he didn’t exactly want to lie. His hesitation just made Aubrey push forward, “And what about you, Basil?! Why didn’t you just say something to me?! You made me think for all those years that it was _you_ when we could’ve-” her voice broke, and tears dripped from her eyes. She tried to speak around the pain, “You…! I did that to you… to us…!”

“I’m sorry.” Basil sniffed and wiped at his own eyes. “I… I didn’t want you to hate Sunny. I didn’t want to believe he did it either.”

“But WHY would you do it?!” Aubrey shouted now, choking on her tears. “You of all people, Sunny! How could you? _How could you_?!”

Sunny couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes. He blinked a little rapidly as tears gathered in his eye as well. He didn’t feel like he deserved to cry, but he could hardly stop it. He had accepted that he needed to be human again. No more locking it away. He needed to tell the truth, so he would. “Because I didn’t want to remember.” He whispered, voice breaking a little. “I was selfish. I didn’t think about anything but… Just forgetting everything. Because I… I had been so angry and in pain. And I didn’t want anything around that would remind me when I had just wanted to forget.”

“You selfish bastard!” Aubrey shouted, shoving Sunny hard in the chest as she stood up. Basil caught Sunny before he could topple to the ground and held him as both boys looked at her with surprise. Her frame trembled as she glared at him. “That was all we had left of her! You had… You had everything! I… I know you wanted to forget, but you’re so fucking _selfish_! Those pictures were all we had left of her! That’s why I was so mad when I thought Basil had done it! How dare you…!” Her legs gave out then, and she fell to her knees and cried. Sunny didn’t know what to do. He was frozen. Basil’s mouth opened and closed like he wanted to say something. Like he wanted to comfort her. But neither was quite sure how to do it.

Basil was braver than Sunny was. He released the boy and got up to crouch by Aubrey. “I’m sorry too, Aubrey. For everything. It… It may have been Sunny who did it, but I should’ve… I should’ve cleaned the photos. Or held him accountable.” His eyes were pained. “I’m sorry for not doing more.”

Sunny only felt worse hearing that. But he also felt like he needed to feel horrible. “I’m sorry.” He repeated, because there was nothing else he could say. “I’m sorry, Aubrey. I'm sorry, Basil.”

Aubrey didn’t push Basil’s hands away when he helped to steady her, and she slowly began to gather herself once more. Sunny remembered, then, the handkerchief that he had in his pocket. He had started carrying it around again. He pulled it out and held it out to the girl. Aubrey glared at him before the glare broke to expose the hurt girl beneath it. She accepted the offering and used it to wipe at her face. Basil rubbed at her back as she did so. Sunny waited for his verdict.

None of them spoke so that Aubrey had time to calm down. Sunny felt unnerved by the number of eyes that had fallen on them, but it seemed like the situation wasn’t enough to draw people to them. Aubrey sniffed and sat back on her heels as she faced Sunny once more. The hurt and anger were still there, but they weren’t controlling her any longer. Sunny felt like he had just stuck his finger in her wound.

“...You really wanted to forget about everything that badly after… after what you did?” She asked. Sunny couldn’t answer. He hardly needed to. She scoffed quietly to herself. “...I can’t say I don’t blame you. I never thought you were the type of guy to do that, though. Then again, I never thought anything that happened all those years ago would happen. So, what do I know?” She shook her head. Basil stepped away from her, hands slowly lowering to his sides. “...How are the pictures now?”

“They’re… I have them. With my suitcase.” Sunny admitted. He had brought it with him just in case the others wanted to look through it again. He usually took care of it at his apartment. It would sit on his bookshelf where every now and again he would pull it out. He had shown it to his mom and had cried with her over it. Some of the words in it were slightly smeared because of that, but Sunny had traced over them to rewrite what was said.

“Good.” Aubrey finally seemed like she had calmed down. She didn’t try to hide out of embarrassment of her feelings or anything. Sunny admired that about her. Even now he just wanted to hide his face and not be seen. “There’s still a lot you have to explain to us. Both of you. I want to hear it all.”

“Oh…” Basil cringed at the thought.

“I know.” Sunny said quietly. “I… I plan to.”

“It’s not going to be easy.” He said it like it was for Aubrey, but it felt more like it was for Sunny. “But… I want… You all deserve to know.”

“Yeah, we do.” Aubrey said with a scowl. She was silent for a moment before she took the water bottle from Sunny and drank a few large gulps from it. She could have it, he thought. “It’s going to suck, but I feel like we’ve all been waiting. We never got to finish at the hospital. I think… I’m in a better place now. To listen and understand, anyway.” She looked away, frowning at the grass. She brushed her bangs out of her face as the wind caught it. “I don’t hate either of you, even knowing the gist of what you did. Or… I should say I can’t totally hate you. I know there’s more to your story than what you told us. Just saying you and Mari fought and you pushed her… it doesn’t seem right. That’s not everything, I know it. You and Mari barely ever fought. You loved her more than any of us. And we all loved her a lot.” She looked to Sunny then, and her face became blurry with the tears that filled Sunny’s vision. He didn’t acknowledge them as they rolled down his face after he blinked. Basil took Sunny’s hand once more and held it tightly. “It was an accident, wasn’t it Sunny?”

For the longest time Sunny hadn’t been so sure about that. In the weeks following Mari’s death and her funeral, Sunny had played and replayed what happened that day over and over even while his mind had rebelled and tried to make him run far away from it all. Had he done it on purpose? He had meant to push Mari, but did he mean to push her down the stairs? Had he meant to punish her? Had it been an accident? Did he know the stairs had been right behind her when he had pushed? A lot of it had been a blur. He had been so stressed out and overwhelmed. Not only had he gotten angry over failing to live up to his own expectations and Mari’s perfect expectations when it came to the violin, but his sister had ended up shouting at him. Aubrey was right in that Mari and Sunny had rarely fought, but they’d bickered plenty of times. It was the first time Mari had gotten angry like that with Sunny. The last time she had raised her voice at him was out of worry when he had nearly drowned. Her shouting had only added to the stress and frustration he’d already felt. His mind hadn’t been able to comprehend why she hadn’t understood.

Most of what came next was a blur of simple thoughts. He had emotionally checked out under the pressure. His memories were like tunnel vision, but he had been able to face all of them the day he had decided it was time to overcome his trauma. Still, his memories didn’t bring total clarity to his thoughts during that time. Because he wasn’t completely sure if he had even had any thoughts in his head outside of the haze of red.

Sunny couldn’t speak as a sob broke from him and he nodded. No matter what his intentions had been that day, he would’ve never wished his sister dead. None of what had happened had been what he had wanted. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wished that he could take back what was already done. Yes, it really was all an accident.

Basil’s arms wrapped around him, and then Aubrey’s followed. Sunny’s eye popped open with shock. Basil was crying into his shoulder. Aubrey simply held them both even as she still sniffled. None of them spoke. They weren’t sure if there were words to even be said. They didn’t need to speak for Sunny to feel the forgiveness. At least for this, he had done what he had set out to do. One hurdle crossed. He hoped he would be able to hold it together better when they inevitably told the full truth. He could speak of it better than he could back then when he had been bordering on running away.

“Are… you guys okay?” Kel’s voice shocked all of them, and the three friends jumped apart. Kel stood over them with wide eyes, arms laden with bags from the house. “Whoa! Were you crying?! What happened?!”

“YOU-!” Aubrey began as she quickly climbed to her feet with red cheeks. Then she just scoffed. “God, you’re so stupid! Way to ruin the moment!”

“Hey, what did I do?” Kel asked, baffled. Aubrey clicked her tongue and stalked off with the handkerchief clutched in her hand. Kel watched her go with a look of total confusion before he turned back to the others. “Jeez, what’s her problem?” Then his tone became a little more serious with concern as he saw Basil and Sunny wiping their own faces of tears. They had tried to be subtle, but there was no real way of doing so. “What happened?”

Basil shook his head and gave a shaky smile. “We just… Got emotional? Haha… sorry.” He dropped his gaze again. “Um, what’s all that stuff?”

Kel didn't press more. “It’s the barbecue stuff!” He pointed over to the corner of the park that had plenty of shade and the perfect amount of room to set up a picnic blanket. Hero was already over there with his mother, father, and sister helping to lay out the blanket while keeping an eye on Sally. His father was preparing the grill. “We’ve still gotta go back and pick up our order of desserts from the bakery, though. Mom ordered some pie, and dad says he’ll make steaks if we go grab some meat from the deli!”

Steaks. Sunny hadn’t had that in a little while. His mom tried to cook steak, but it was usually very well-done and Sunny liked them a little bit less well-done. His mom didn’t know how to cook any others, though. His dad was the one who used to cook them the best. He wouldn’t mind having one made on the grill.

He sniffed one final time before climbing to his feet with Basil. He was ready to go whenever the others were. “We’ll join you in a moment, Kel.” Basil said, answering in Sunny’s place. “You should give your parents the stuff before they notice you have it still.”

“Oh shoot, you’re totally right! Okay, I’ll be right back! I’m sure Aubrey will circle back around too.” He gave them both a grin and a thumbs up before he hurried off to deliver the goods.

Basil only sighed and looked towards Sunny. His smile was sad. “This… this is going to be really tough, huh?”

Sunny could only nod.

“Yeah, I thought so too.” His sad eyes turned to watch Kel’s family. His smile dropped away, but he looked more resolved than upset. “But I think we need it. It would be closure for all of us. They’ve waited a long time to know what happened. And… And no matter what, we’ll always be friends. Even if we’re friends who never see each other again.” Sunny’s heart clenched at the very thought. He didn’t want that. But he had no choice in the matter. “Everything will be okay.” Basil gave him a tiny, reassuring smile as their hands found each other. “No matter what, we’ll always be here for each other.”

“Right.” Sunny agreed quietly. He squeezed Basil’s hand back. This time he had no plans to run away.


	9. College

Kel tactfully did not bring up the fact that he had caught his friends crying when Aubrey had returned and the group decided to go pick up the ordered snacks for their barbeque. If Hero had noticed the red under their eyes, he didn’t say anything either. They collectively decided to not discuss it. Sunny was relieved when Aubrey chose to walk next to him, though her attitude was aloof.

They entered the market and talked about possibly picking up some extra snacks before deciding it would be better to save their money. Sunny learned that despite what he had been expecting, there wouldn’t be a sleepover with everyone involved. That just left him with Kel and Hero. It made him picture the little fort that had been made at his house with the last blankets and pillows that hadn’t been packed away. He wondered if he could make something like that for himself. Though all of his stuffed animals were at his house and mostly weren’t used anymore, he still liked the sensation of sleeping with something and surrounded by the fluffy goodness of pillows. He didn’t move around much in his sleep, so it meant he was cocooned in his own little world.

“Oh! Is that you, Mr. Tutor?” Sunny felt a tap on his arm, which pulled him back from where he had been zoning out in front of the bakery counter. The man who worked behind it was missing, which could only mean that he had gone to get their order. Sunny’s eyes dropped to meet the curious and delighted gaze of a little girl. It only took a moment to recognize her as Joy, the little girl he had tutored during his last couple of days in Faraway Town. “It _is_ you!” Joy said. “It’s so good to see you again!” Her hands clasped in front of her, and she beamed with a gap-toothed smile. Sunny half-expected her to curtsy. “Mr. Kel told me that you had moved away, and Dad said he had sent you a gift when you were in the hospital.” Her face grew concerned. “Um, are you still hurt?”

Sunny wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. Before he could say anything, Kel’s body slammed into his back as he draped himself over the shorter boy from behind. “Nope! He’s fine! Sunny’s just a pirate!”

“Huh?” Joy asked.

Sunny brought his hand up and curled his index finger like it was a hook. Kel laughed and pretended he had a sword, swishing his hand back and forth in a mock battle. “ARRRRR! Be careful there, lassie, or you’ll walk the plank!”

Joy just continued to look confused. “Are you… playing pirates?”

Kel deflated a little. “Aw man. You’re supposed to play along, right?”

“Oh!” She caught onto her mistake quickly. “I-I mean…! Nooo! I don’t wanna walk the plank!”

“Hehehe, you’re in for it now, lassie! Let’s get her, Sunny!” Kel and Sunny jerked forward as if to grab her, and Joy let out a playful squeak before she rushed away to where her dad was walking over. He blinked at the sight of them before he recognized them as well.

“Here’s where you ran off to, Joy. And look! Is that Kel and… Sunny?”

“That’s right! Sunny’s come back for a visit!” Kel patted his friend’s shoulder before he released him entirely.

“It’s good to see you’re well and out of the hospital.” Joy’s father said. He seemed a little more relaxed than the last time that Sunny had seen him. “You were quite the talk of the neighborhood for a few days, considering you were kind enough to help out all of your neighbors before you left. I hope you’re willing to play with Joy again, maybe! Or even help her with her homework again, haha!”

“Sure! We don’t mind, right Sunny?” Sunny didn’t say anything. He didn’t mind, but he also knew that Kel wouldn’t be helping out at all. It could be a good chance to make a bit of money again.

“All done here!” Hero called as he, Basil, and Aubrey met up with the two boys. He brandished the fancy bread rolls and the pie box he had. “Oh, sorry. Did we interrupt?”

“Not at all.” The man said. “It seems we might be interrupting. We’ll leave you be, then. Good to see you kids!”

“Bye!” Joy waved to them cheerfully before her and her father left.

“Who was that?” Basil asked as the group made their departure as well.

“Isn’t that the family of that guitar guy that had been playing outside of Hobbeez a while back? The one we delivered the food and the letter for?” Aubrey asked. Sunny was a little surprised that she had remembered that. 

“That’s right!” Kel said, clearly in a good mood after the encounter. “I’ve helped them out a couple other times here and there, but I got fired from being Joy’s tutor. So now I just play with her once in a while! She’s a cute kid.”

“Don’t tell me… do you babysit her?” Hero asked.

“Pffft, no way! I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility!”

“You babysit your sister all the time.” Aubrey said, deadpan.

“That’s different! Sally’s still a baby. Kids are a lot harder to take care of!”

“So, you were her tutor before?” Basil asked. Sunny missed the air conditioning when they stepped outside into the humid evening air. Everything was coated with the orange of the setting sun. Faraway Town always seemed more peaceful at this time of day. 

“Nope. Sunny was. I’m not good with that school stuff.”

“I thought you said you wanted to go to college?” Basil shifted to be closer to Kel. “Right?”

“Yeah, but only because Mom expects it. I’m planning on riding by on sports and maybe go into basketball.” He frowned thoughtfully. “That’s my plan for now, anyway.”

“Haha, yeah, Mom won’t be too happy if you don’t at least try to get through college.” Hero agreed. “Actually… now that I think about it, you guys are seniors. Wow, time really flies. Are you thinking about what you want to do from here?”

Seniors in high school. It made all of his friends seem so old and mature. Sunny looked at his friends and realized that yeah, they were nothing like they were when they were all twelve. Aubrey looked more like a young woman than ever. Hero’s face had matured, and so had Kel’s. And even if Basil was still the shortest of the group, he still looked like a high schooler. Sunny felt almost static in comparison. The realization that he wasn’t going to be graduating in the same year as his friends was a bitter one. He would have to find another route to finish his own schooling.

“Um… I’m not sure if I’m going to college.” Basil admitted. “I mean… I might. Just to learn, y’know? But… I’m thinking of being a gardener. Or a florist. I don’t really know how much college will help me with that.”

“That’s a great idea!” Hero said. “You’re already there, huh? Maybe you could own your own flower shop!”

Basil’s smile was a little nervous, but hopeful. “That’s what I was thinking too… there’s a flower shop in the town over. I was going to try to get a job there. Once, ah, once I’m ready.”

“It’s still pretty tough for you to deal with people, isn’t it?” Kel asked with a concerned frown. Then he gave him a grin and thumbs up. “You’re doing really great, though! You’ll get there in no time.”

“Thanks, Kel.”

“What about you, Aubrey?” Hero asked. The group slowed in order to draw out the time before they returned back to the barbeque group.

She was silent for a few moments, looking out among the trees as she tucked her hair behind her ear. Her cheeks darkened a little before she asked shyly, “...What if I don’t have a plan?”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Hero reassured her. “College isn’t the end-all be-all, and it’s not for everyone.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that… well, I’m worried about… money.” She seemed even more embarrassed to admit that. Sunny got the impression that Aubrey wasn’t proud of her living situation. Now that he had thought about it, nobody had talked about what they had seen in her home. The group had simply ignored it. As far as he knew, nobody else had gone into Aubrey’s house. He felt a little guilty. Did all of that happen after Aubrey’s father left? Or had it always been like that and they’d just never known? He hoped it was the former, though both options were bad. “That, and… I don’t really know what I want to do in the future.”

“Haha, neither do we, really!” Kel said. “We’re not even eighteen! Who the heck has their life figured out so quickly?”

“He’s right.” Hero squeezed Aubrey’s shoulder then. “And if it’s money you’re worried about, I don’t mind helping you apply for scholarships and such. I’m sure you’ll be able to get enough to help you with school!”

Aubrey brightened at his words. “You think?”

“Absolutely!” He beamed at her. “Just ask me any time, okay? I’ve also got some teachers in my school that can give me some advice on the matter, if you need that! I’m here to help!”

“Ah, me too!” Basil hurried to say. He gave a small smile when Aubrey looked towards him. “I’ve been doing… a lot of research into that stuff too. I can help too.”

“And me and Sunny can cheer you on!” Kel offered.

Aubrey looked visibly relieved. “Thanks, guys. Really.”

“What about you, Sunny?” Basil asked, then. “Um, have you thought of anything?”

Sunny shook his head. The concept of having a career of some sort was so far separated from his current reality that it wasn’t one he could think about. It felt a lot like when his friends in Headspace had been tricked into signing contracts to work at Last Resort. Would having a real job be like that? He would rather work on himself first and save up his money before deciding anything like that. His therapist told him that when he felt stuck or behind his friends that small steps were the way to start so he wouldn’t be so overwhelmed. Sunny had four years of life to catch up on.

“Well… just know that the offer’s open for you too.” Hero told him. “Don’t feel bad about asking us for help. Seriously.”

Sunny didn’t respond, but he appreciated it. The idea of college and university made him feel physically ill. He had hated seeing Mari so focused on college prep during her final few months. Between playing the piano and the studying, he hadn’t spent nearly as much time with her as he used to. He had been spoiled for her attention. He had been a little jealous at how often Hero and Mari had gotten to hang out considering they had been doing preparations together. Thinking about it now only brought back those bitter feelings, but also the sad ones that had encouraged him to take up the violin in the first place. These feelings were what started the beginning of the end for him and Mari. 

His gaze grew dark as he watched the sidewalk turn to grass as they entered the park again. No, college wasn’t something that he wanted to think about. It was an enemy that loomed like Sweetheart’s castle over Pyrefly Forest. He wasn’t ready to face that, nor what it might bring with it. He was at peace with the life he had now: healing and gathering joy from his friends. He supposed that this was an enemy he would have to face head-on at some point, but until then he would focus on the present.

_Calm down. Focus. Persist._

He would be fine. One step at a time. He would get there when he got there. His future would always be there. The present was the one to think about for now. He wanted to enjoy his time with his friends. These may be the last days they can easily gather like this.

Sunny thought it would be better to keep that kind of thought to himself.


	10. Remembering

As evening began to bleed into night time, everyone decided it was time to clean up and go their separate ways. Sally had fallen asleep on her mother’s shoulder, so Sunny helped to carry leftover trash and supplies back to Kel’s house. Along the way, Basil and Aubrey said their goodbyes. Hero told Basil to go ahead and keep the leftovers from lunch for himself and Polly since it was already late and everyone was pretty tired. Sunny could confess that he was pretty sleepy. Between the good food, the exuberant company, and the most active day he’s had in awhile, he was pretty beat. 

There wasn’t much left to be done by the time they were all back at Kel’s house and they had cleaned up. One by one the boys took showers and returned to the bedroom to set up the space where Sunny would be sleeping during his stay in Faraway Town. It was fun to simply chat with Kel and Hero about a variety of new shows and video games that had come out. Despite it being a fairly one-sided conversation, both Sunny and Hero had enjoyed discussing the new reality cooking show that involved quite a number of silly antics. Sunny was just glad to have found someone who also enjoyed the show so he could discuss it with them. His mother wasn’t very interested in it.

The summer night left a cozy atmosphere to the room and a level of comfort that reminded Sunny of the warm glow of the lantern in the blanket fort that the brothers had made at Sunny’s house. The futon was a lot different and the room was darker, but he felt at ease. He had been concerned that things would be awkward for him on his first night back in Faraway Town. So many memories existed, both good and bad, in those last nights at his old house. It was a little strange to once again share a room with other people.

Kel yawned widely, shifting on his bed before relaxing. “Man, it’s been really fun having you back, Sunny.” He said. The house was quieter than before, but Sunny could still hear some movement from the parents a few doors down. “I hope you won’t mind if Sally wakes you up in the middle of the night. She’s better than she was, but she might still end up crying.”

Sunny didn’t say anything. He has been a heavy sleeper for a number of years, no matter how easily he could wake up under the right circumstances. That being said, he’s had a harder time falling asleep in the past year. If Sally cried while he was sleeping then he doubted he would even hear her.

“If the futon ends up being too uncomfortable, we can rotate out our beds.” Hero added as a suggestion. He sounded a lot more awake than Kel did. “I remember you used to have a lot of trouble sleeping on unknown beds, right?”

Nobody would be able to see him nod anyway, so he didn’t bother to try. “I’ll be okay.” Sunny said. He didn’t feel right kicking his friends out of their beds. Worse came to worst, he might go downstairs and sleep on the couch. It wouldn’t be the first, nor the last time he had done such a thing in both this house and his own house. Kel’s couch wasn’t as comfortable as Sunny’s, but it was still nice.

“Just wanted to let you know the offer’s open.”

There was a comfortable silence that fell over the group. Sunny could hear the crickets outside chirping their evening songs. The sounds of the night were nostalgic and lonely. He couldn’t hear them in the city. At night he could only hear the occasional car passing by, or the sounds of someone walking around in the hallway outside of his apartment. The lights of the city were bright enough that he had to use his curtains to block them out. Here Kel didn’t even lower the blinds much more than he did when the sun was out. When Sunny tilted his head back, he could just barely make out the stars and the edge of the moon outside.

Kel began to snore then, quickly falling asleep like he was wont to do. Hero let out a quiet snicker. Sunny turned his head to look at him. He could only just see the outline of his form in the low light of the room. “He was just talking about how he didn’t think he would be able to fall asleep tonight because he’s so excited for tomorrow.” Hero explained, voice full of wry amusement. “He’s been really looking forward to this visit. I remember that when you first agreed to come over, he called me up to tell me himself like I didn’t already know from being in the same chatroom.” He fell silent for a beat, and then he added, “...He’s really missed you. Not just in this past year, but before that too. He doesn’t really talk about it and most people don’t realize it since he has a bunch of buddies at school, but I don’t think there was a day that went by that he hadn't thought about you. He was pretty lonely.”

Sunny remembered his mother’s message about how Kel had been calling them for a couple months once he had learned that Sunny was going to move away. It all seemed so strange to Sunny now that he had never tried to call Kel back even one time. Time had passed with such a blur that he'd had trouble distinguishing between days back then. What few urges he'd had to do anything outside of sleeping or occasionally playing video games were usually postponed in his mind for a later date because he had never felt up for it. Only those final three days in town were the clearest to him. He was touched that Kel had thought about him.

“I didn’t forget you guys either.” He responded quietly, curling in on himself under the covers a little and tucking the blanket to his lips. He wasn’t sure if Hero could even hear him, but he wanted to say it anyway.

“I’m glad.” Hero rolled over onto his side to presumably look at Sunny. He could just make out the shine in his friend’s eyes. “I’d wonder about you in there all alone. It was all I could think about whenever I looked at your house.” Sunny only watched him. He could feel the air of anticipation around Hero, like the boy was about to take some kind of plunge. Instead, he stepped back from the edge and the moment broke. “A-Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry, that’s, uh… We’re tired. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”

Sunny didn’t mind. Not really. The night encouraged sincerity and the telling of truths and secrets. There had been a couple of times in the past where they had all slept over in Mari and Sunny’s room, or in the living room of Sunny’s house. Back then when they were younger, everyone had stayed up as late as they could simply talking and giggling in the night from their own giddiness of being in the room together despite Mari and Hero’s encouragement to sleep. They would start to drift off, and then Kel would make a farting noise with his hands, and all of them would start giggling even as Aubrey had yelled about how gross it was. Something about the night was invigorating.

“Good night, Sunny. Good night, Kel.” Hero said instead, snuggling a bit more into his blankets and closing his eyes.

For a long moment, Sunny considered responding. He debated it with himself before deciding that he wanted to. “Good night.” He said back. The small turn of Hero’s lips was enough to make him proud of his response.

Sunny stared at the ceiling fan that turned above them slowly for a little while longer before he allowed it to lull him to sleep.

* * *

He wasn't sure what woke him up. Sunny’s eyes opened to darkness still covering the room, meaning the sun hadn’t yet risen. He wasn't very alarmed by his sudden consciousness, though. It wasn’t unusual. He laid there quietly, simply listening to see if he could distinguish what had awakened him, but no cries of a baby reached his ears or any other noises that might alert him to the cause of his consciousness. He was content to try and fall back asleep when something shifting caught the corner of his vision. He turned his head towards Hero’s bed and spotted Mari standing there. Sunny’s heart leapt with shock, though he didn’t react outwardly to the sight of his sister there. His eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness, so he was able to make her out pretty easily. Her back was turned towards him, but it couldn’t have been anyone else. His tongue felt like it was too big for his mouth, suddenly.

What if it was one of those monstrous versions of his sister that he had seen time and time again? They weren’t restricted to only his nightmares, and they weren't gone even if he had left his house. He had been hopeful that maybe they would leave him alone, but he had yet to be so lucky. He was just relieved that he didn’t see them nearly as often as he used to. The shadow of Something that used to follow him everywhere wasn’t there anymore, but the monsters of his mind weren’t as easily placated.

When the night time came, the boundary between what was real and what was imaginary became too dark for Sunny to make out. Even now he wasn’t completely sure he wasn’t dreaming. Maybe he was. Honestly, he should probably be more alarmed than he was, but he wasn’t. He was simply surprised to see Mari there.

“Do you remember when we first spent the night here?” She spoke as if she was talking to Hero, but Sunny knew the words were directed at him. Hero was fast asleep. Mari sat down on the edge of the bed and shot Sunny a small, playful smile. Her hand landed next to where Hero’s was resting. “We were so small that this bed had seemed so big. It always felt like Hero’s and Kel’s parents had known their boys would be really big, so they just went ahead and got them big beds from the get-go!” She laughed to herself. Sunny sat up on his futon and didn’t say a word. He was just so happy to see Mari again. The night air felt full of magic. “We were both excited to stay over. It was the first time you had gone to a sleepover, right?”

He nodded, even if he knew that she knew. His sister paid close attention to Sunny, after all. She’d always loved and had taken care of him. He had been grateful that his sister would be with him for the first time he had stayed at another's house.

“We had stayed up until really late. Or, actually, it wasn’t very late at all, now was it?” She brought her hand to her chin thoughtfully before she dropped it and beamed. “It was probably only until… maybe ten? It felt late since it was past our bedtime!” Her smile softened once more. “For as happy as you were, you also got scared at night. Kel fell asleep right away, but you couldn’t stay asleep. So we climbed into bed with Hero! He was so nervous to have us both there, but when he saw how scared you were you could really see the big brother in him come out.”

Sunny could kind of remember that night. He had been so tired, but the unknown room and the shadows had seemed to creep up on him. He had wanted to sleep with Mari, but there wasn’t a lot of room. Mari had taken the initiative to ask Hero if Sunny could sleep on his bed, but Sunny felt too weird sleeping with Hero then. Mari scooted right in, and the three of them had just barely managed to squeeze together. It had been hot, but Sunny had felt warm and safe. He wondered if Kel had ever had nightmares like Sunny did. He doubted it. Kel had always been really brave.

“We’d never all be able to fit in here now.” Mari ran her hand over Hero’s blanket and over his arm. “You’re too big for that now, and Hero gets so flustered when we snuggle even after all this time.” She looked delighted even as she said it.

Sunny almost reached out to touch her, but decided against it as the girl faded away before his eyes. The mystical feeling of the night faded with her. Even with as dark as it was, Mari’s presence had seemed to bring sunlight with her. He felt better, but not ready to go back to sleep. 

He climbed to his feet instead and walked quietly out of the bedroom and to the bathroom. The house was a little noisy with the sound of snoring from Kel’s parents’ room. Sunny entered the bathroom and glanced in the mirror. For a moment he had thought he had seen something lingering in the dark, but it had only been the towel hanging on the back of the door. His heart had jumped to see it, reminded of Something. He shook the feeling off. Something did not exist anymore. Not in the way it used to, anyway.

He used the toilet and washed his hands before turning off the light and exiting the bathroom. His night vision was shot, leaving him in total darkness. The sounds of snoring and crickets dimmed as white noise became louder. It was a sound he knew he couldn’t make disappear. He just ignored it and walked back into the bedroom.

The futon wasn’t very comfortable, but it was nice. He would rate it a 5/10. It smelled a little musty, but clean. He settled himself into it and stared at the fan once more. The slow turn of it churned the air and glowed a little on the edges from the moonlight. Kel’s snores had become a little louder than before. He wasn’t nearly as loud as his dad. He could barely hear Hero breathing. Sunny felt safe, if a little lonely. He preferred this infinitely more than the long nights he had spent alone in his very, very comfortable bed at his home. He couldn’t hear the haunting giggles of Mari or the thudding of her body rolling down the stairs here. 

Sunny squeezed his eyes shut as a jagged whip of agony struck him at the memory. He shook it off and pictured that night he had been tucked between Hero and Mari when he had been smaller and younger. If he focused, he could still hear the sound of her heartbeat.

His body was used to falling asleep quickly. It didn’t take him long to drop under sleep’s spell once more. He was grateful for the relief.

* * *

**_…………………_ **

**_………………_ **

**_……………_ **

**_…………_ **

**_………_ **

**_……_ **

**_…_ **

**_…_ **

**_…_ **

**_._ **

**_Welcome to Headspace._ **

_“Welcome back, Sunny!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I should just keep sharing random Omori vids I like that I've found on youtube. [Here's another one!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh-IyaLoa6E)


	11. Headspace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is most definitely not going to be about Headspace, but we will occasionally see some of Sunny's dreams there. The story is mostly focused on real life, though. But since this story is about not only my headcanons for what I believe would happen to the group after the end of the game, I wanted to include my Headspace theories and headcanons as well.

Headspace had always existed in some form in Sunny’s mind long before it had become as powerful as it once had been. He had gone on adventures in his imagination while both awake and asleep, though the ones while he had been asleep had a much more dreamlike quality. When he was asleep, he couldn’t actively control Headspace. It was a place of its own with denizens of its own that came probably from his imagination and subconscious. He wasn’t entirely sure. He liked unraveling the story.

In the years he had locked himself away and had used Headspace as a distraction from the reality that he had not wanted to face, he had become accustomed to its map and had explored every new avenue and world that had opened up inside of it. Headspace had unrolled with newer and newer layers the longer he had intended to flee from the darkness and truth that had nipped at his heels. If he had forgotten reality, then he could simply be part of Headspace. Maybe when Sunny woke up, then his Headspace counterpart would stay in that world. He had never quite achieved that level, though with the way reality had blended with his dreams so often Sunny was left to wonder if maybe he had achieved it more than he had previously thought. It was just that while he was awake he could only reach the deepest depths of Headspace. Black Space. The place he had wanted to avoid for as long as possible.

A year after choosing to face that darkness head-on and choosing to overcome what he had done, Headspace had shrunk and returned to something similar to its old state. Some nights Sunny never ended up there and instead dreamt of things he assumed were normal for people. Sometimes he had nightmares. Sometimes he had average dreams that left no impression on him at all. But his dreams in Headspace were still always as vivid as reality to him. It was his world, though his conscious control over it was limited at best. He liked it that way. Who wanted to explore a world where he knew everyone and everything in it? It took out the fun of the adventure.

He had his own room now in Headspace. That was where Sunny would often appear whenever he arrived while asleep. It was nothing like White Space where everything was safe but nothing ever happened. It was a hollow in a large tree that had appeared near Neighbor’s Room, seemingly as a replacement for White Space. Unlike before there were no doors that separated his place from his visiting friends. There was no need to draw that line. In his room he had a bed, a clear lightbulb, and strange trinkets that would come and go at random. He suspected that it was the results of his friends bringing him things they’ve found, but he’d never asked and they never told. 

He never woke up in his room. He simply existed, wide-awake and ready to do whatever he wanted to do that day. He didn’t have the same monochrome palette as he’d had when he had worn the costume of Omori over himself. He was Sunny and he was in full color with a white tank top and colorful pinwheel-printed boxers that seemed to have become his new outfit. Depending on the day he sometimes wore inside-out knee-high socks, but other days he was without them. He could never plan on when he would or wouldn’t be wearing them.

 _“Welcome back, Sunny!”_ Sunny met the bright smiles of his purple-tinted friends as they poked their heads around the side of the tree’s entrance.

 _“It’s about time you got here, Sunny.”_ Aubrey said, cheeks puffing out a little bit as she adjusted her bow in her light hair. She looked particularly annoyed. _“Help us decide what we’re going to do.”_

 _“I already told’ja that we’re going treasure island hunting!”_ Kel argued, crossing his arms. _“We already agreed to that!”_

 _“We didn’t. You decided that on your own.”_ She glared at him. It was strange seeing the real life Aubrey’s expressions on her younger self, but Sunny was growing used to it.

 _“I think it might be fun!”_ Basil suggested, fingers fiddling with each other as he watched Kel and Aubrey bicker. _“Maybe we can try it?”_

 _“Haha, see?”_ Kel beamed at the support, proud. _“Just give in, Aubrey!”_

 _“Why should I just because Basil sided with you? Sunny! What do you think?”_ Aubrey and the others spun on Sunny once more. He honestly didn’t really care what they did. If he was remembering correctly, they had all gone camping on Otherworld the last time he had been there. He didn’t remember who had suggested that one.

 _“He should at least know any other options.”_ Basil said. _“We can’t force him to choose when he doesn’t know.”_

 _“Don’t make me get Mari and Hero involved in this!”_ Kel added. _“I thought you had_ **_wanted_ ** _to go treasure island hunting? What else is there to do when there are so many islands to explore!”_

 _“You’re talking about a make-believe island, Kel, and that’s why it’s dumb.”_ Aubrey said.

Sunny decided that he didn’t actually want to decide. It was strange enough to not at least see Hero keeping the peace between Kel and Aubrey. Poor Basil was left to be the mediator, and he was never really good at it. Sunny walked forward and exited the tree house and into Neighbor’s Room. The Big Yellow Cat watched over Sunny with bright, intelligent eyes as his friends fell into step behind him, bickering all the way up the stairs and to the exit. 

If Sunny was still older, he was sure they wouldn’t be able to climb out of the hole in the tree trunk that marked the entrance and exit to Neighbor’s Room. It was one of the reasons he was grateful they all still maintained their younger children forms. Not that a new entrance probably couldn't be made, but it was just another reason to choose to stay like they were. They slipped out of the hole and made their way to the edge of the island where a familiar raft sat waiting.

 _“Where are we going? The playground?”_ Basil asked as the four of them climbed on board and the raft automatically started making its way to the nearby island. The inky indigo depths of the water sparkled occasionally like stars. It did not reflect the purple night sky above them, but it did show their reflections when they looked into it. The ripples distorted Sunny’s face and he got vertigo from looking down. 

“Mari and Hero?” Sunny asked in response.

 _“They ran off somewhere together.”_ Kel said, almost sulking.

 _“Did you want to go find them?”_ Aubrey asked.

It felt strange not to check up on them, so Sunny nodded. There wasn’t usually too much trouble that Mari or Hero would get up to and he knew they would be fine alone, but since Sunny was there he wanted to be able to see his sister.

 _“Man, I know if Mari was here she would side with me!”_ Kel continued as their raft hit the shore and the group began their search for their older friends. _“She was the one who’d told us about it anyway.”_

 _“Never Island isn’t a_ **_thing_** _, Kel! That’s a kid’s story.”_ Aubrey shook her head. _“Mari tells us a lot of tales, and not all of them are true.”_

 _“Well… she doesn’t lie about them either.”_ Kel responded with a frown. _“And a lot of her rumors tend to be true.”_

 _“You don’t think it would be cool to find it, Aubrey?”_ Basil glanced at the girl.

 _“I-It’s not that I don’t think it’d be cool! I just… I don’t know. The name doesn’t inspire confidence.”_ She muttered.

They stepped out of the tree line and entered the playground. It was much like Sunny remembered, though not all of the other kids were there. The group did a quick look around and asked the Mailbox Jax if they’d seen Mari or Hero, but it seemed that they hadn’t come through there. 

_“A place where you never have to grow up and where adventures never seem to stop…!”_ Kel’s eyes glittered with the possibility. _“It sounds fun!”_

 _“Yeah, if you never want to grow up. I want to be a beautiful adult and get married!”_ Aubrey said. _“Not everyone wants to be a kid forever.”_

The irony of her statement wasn’t lost on Sunny. He wondered if his friends would ever actually grow up, or if he would ever tire of this space. He had yet to do so. Despite the fact that they were all little kids here, it didn’t bother him at all. It felt right. He fit in here. Though their personalities were closer to their real life forms now, his friends in Headspace didn’t carry the burden of Mari’s death with them. Even Basil was free from it. Only Sunny and, very rarely, Mari knew the truth. His friends couldn’t know, though. Mari was still alive and healthy and happy here. And this Basil was not cursed to always remember the truth and force Sunny to remember as well. He had saved and freed Headspace Basil from it, even if that meant that Headspace was irrevocably changed forever because of their actions.

 _“You mean… to Sunny?”_ Kel raised an eyebrow at her.

Sunny felt his cheeks warm, and Aubrey’s darkened as well as she let out an enraged yelp and punched Kel in the shoulder. _“Sh-Shut up!”_

 _“OW! Jeez, it’s not like you weren’t always going on about it before.”_ Kel whined, rubbing his shoulder. Then he smiled, getting over the jab easily. _“If you get married to Sunny, then you’ll probably be my sister-in-law when Hero marries Mari! Hahaha, how does that feel, little sis?”_

_“I’m older than you, stupid!”_

_“Aw, I’d be the only one not in the family.”_ Basil joked.

 _“We can adopt you!”_ Kel said easily.

_“Haha, that’d be fun, though I don’t think it, uh, works like that, Kel.”_

Sunny was still stuck on the embarrassment of Headspace Aubrey’s huge crush on him in the past. Now that he was older, it wasn’t so clear to him that those were actually her feelings. His memories of Aubrey were a rosy hue from his own feelings towards her, but he had no idea if she had ever felt the same way towards him… or if she even had any of those feelings now. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that Aubrey would ever like him in that way again. Sunny wouldn’t be able to do it.

 _“Oh, careful!”_ Basil grabbed Sunny’s arm before he stepped into a puddle on the ground. Judging by the color of it, it would probably end up taking him someplace. If he was remembering correctly, it would transport him back to the playground. That’s not what he wanted.

“Thanks.” He said.

 _“You’re welcome!”_

Kel then rushed ahead of the group before spinning around and spreading his arms out. _“I have an idea! Maybe Hero and Mari are at the castle cooking?”_

 _“Like, to prepare for a picnic?”_ Basil asked.

_“I don’t know. Maybe?”_

It was worth a shot, Sunny supposed. He had nothing better to do than to hang with his friends anyway. He had no problem with simply traveling around Headspace, even if it burnt up all of the time he would spend dreaming. They would go to wherever their hearts desired, and perhaps they would even discover new places. Headspace had changed its shape quite a bit so that not everything was the way it had once been. It made the exploration a lot more fun than before. And it also made him glad that he was no longer scared of drowning.

Between some point of time and the next, Headspace had flooded with the depths of Deeper Well and Black Space. At least, that was what Sunny thought the Inky Ocean was. There were certain aspects of Headspace that remained a mystery even to him, though perhaps he would meet some denizens that would explain some things to him if he could find them. The world he had familiarized himself with in the past had been swallowed by the depths, but some of it had risen to become islands. Otherworld had survived because it was its own planet, and the playground area was still where Sunny had left it. But everywhere else took effort to get to. 

In the year since Headspace had flooded, Sunny had taken short trips into the Inky Ocean but hadn’t had much luck in determining where anything familiar was. Deep Well, Last Resort, and everything that had been down there was left undiscovered once more, if they even existed at all in this new form of Headspace. He still found some of the residents in different areas that he and his friends had explored so their memories weren’t completely gone, but he hadn’t been able to dive far enough to find any kind of ruins.

The islands that had appeared seemed to be created from old and new areas alike. Sweetheart’s Castle no longer existed in its old state, but the ruins had been founded by Mari and so she had claimed it was Mari’s Castle. Sunny still recognized it as Sweetheart’s old castle, but nobody else remembered it that way. It was a relic of a lost time to them like the library had been. Pyrefly Forest had become split into pieces, and Hero still didn’t like going there so they didn’t explore it too often even though they had to travel through some parts of it to get to further islands. The Pinwheel Forest, though, was a large island full of bunnies and sprout moles alike. That place didn’t feel much different than before other than the fact that they could hear ocean waves from anywhere in the forest, but Sunny had a feeling there was more to it that had yet to be explored. He could tell there were new areas to find that they just hadn’t gone to yet. 

To get to most of the islands there were rafts that had appeared that could be controlled similar to the raft inside of Humphrey. The only issue was that they would not survive out on the open ocean, so they couldn’t take it out there. If Kel was talking about trying to find whatever this Never Island was, Sunny didn’t think they would find it by simply hopping on the rafts around them. They would most likely need a ship or some other form of transportation. But that only made him want to do it even more, despite Aubrey’s apparent reservations against it.

 _“Hey, so… why_ **_do_ ** _you think Hero and Mari are at the castle?”_ Aubrey asked some time later as she leaned against the pole of the raft. Her hand trailed over the top of the water, adding to the ripples that spread behind them from their movement. In the distance, Sunny could see another raft traveling from Pyrefly Forest to another island that appeared to be covered with fog. Basil took off his flower crown and checked it over before deciding to touch it up a little bit.

 _“Because I think Hero said something about there being a working kitchen there last time? But I don’t know where he found it! I don’t remember a kitchen there.”_ Kel said.

 _“A… kitchen?”_ Basil gave him a confused smile. _“But… they’re ruins. They can’t have power, right?”_

 _“That’s what I thought too!”_ He nodded quickly in agreement. 

_“Maybe it’s a wood stove?”_ Basil brought a finger to his chin thoughtfully.

 _“Well… yeah. Maybe.”_ Kel made a silly face. _“But Hero can also just… make food out of nowhere during fights… So, uh, maybe it doesn’t matter.”_

 _“...Good point.”_ Basil agreed.

 _“You only questioned this now?”_ Aubrey asked with some exasperation.

The raft bumped against the shore, and the kids climbed off of it before climbing into the remnants of the old rail car. It was faster than walking across the slightly-flooded bridge that had connected Pyrefly Forest to where the old Sprout Mole Colony had been before it had been completely flooded and all the sprout moles there had perished. Now the rail car just took them straight to the edge of the black forest that led into the castle’s courtyard. The entrance to the black forest used to be blocked by the spiked vines when the castle had still been Sweetheart’s, but since Black Space had blended with Headspace it was simply a dark forest. It was kinda spooky to travel through, but the pathway was direct and if it was followed correctly then it was impossible to get lost.

The ruins of Sweetheart’s Castle appeared under their feet as they stepped onto the bricks of the courtyard. The place was overgrown now, and the giant statue of Sweetheart in the middle of the place was gone. Sunny was surprised to see that the statue was now of Mari instead, and it caused the group to stop and gawk a bit.

 _“Was… this here the last time we were here?”_ Aubrey asked, looking a little put off.

 _“Nope. Where d’ya even find the purple metal to make this thing?”_ Kel approached it and knocked on the statue. It sounded like piano keys. _“Huh.”_

 _“I like it better than the old statue that was here, at least.”_ Aubrey circled the Mari statue before folding her arms across her chest. _“That one was straight-up gaudy. Mari looks good like this!”_

 _“Who made it, though?”_ Basil asked.

_“No idea.”_

_“Maybe this is a sign that Hero and Mari are here! They’ll know!”_ Kel decided, rejoining the group. _“Let’s head inside!”_ He, Basil, and Aubrey walked away then and past the statue. Sunny lingered a bit longer, taking in the image of his sister made out of metal. It reminded him of the giant golden statue of Hero that may or may not still be at Last Resort. Mari would probably think it was gross if they somehow found it and brought that here.

Then the statue began to move. Its eyes blinked a couple times before its purple irises fell on Sunny. Though the mouth didn’t move, the Mari statue began to speak, **“What’s the matter, little brother? Don’t I look good in metal?”** Her voice was laced with the sound of piano keys beneath it. Sunny was a little shaken by it all, but the loud clattering was what really startled him.

He woke up with a shock, eyes flying open and disoriented from the shift in perspectives and location. Bright, early morning sunlight filtered into the room and the sound of multiple people talking came from downstairs. Sunny blinked and rubbed at his one eye before sitting up in his futon. The loss of opportunity to keep dreaming was a little sad, but he supposed that he would have to continue his adventure another day.

He looked around the room, but couldn’t find the source of the sound that had startled him awake. Hero and Kel’s beds were both empty. It wasn’t that late in the day judging by the lighting. If there was talking, then chances were that the family was up. There was nothing for it, then. Sunny would just have to go investigate the sound himself. 

He climbed out of the futon and rolled it up before putting it against the wall next to Hero’s trophy. Alright. Time to begin another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D6OsKVTqOI) was recommended in the comments of the last chapter, but I wanted to share it here as well because I just love how absolutely unsettling and perfect it is. Enjoy!


	12. Six Days Left

Sunny rubbed his eye as he exited the bedroom and looked around once more. The voices from downstairs were louder. He definitely recognized the sound of Sally’s attempts to talk and the parents talking with her. Hero’s voice occasionally chimed in as well. Sunny could almost make out something about Hero’s love life being discussed, and Sunny firmly decided he wanted no part of what was probably an awkward subject. Just thinking about it was unpleasant for him. So, he continued to search for the noise he had heard earlier.

It didn’t take him long. He knocked on the bathroom door to see if anyone was in there, and the door was thrown open to reveal Kel pulling his shorts on with his toothbrush still in his mouth. “Hwi Sun’y!” He muttered around the foam. It caused some of it to run down his chin. He finished putting on his shorts and held up a finger to tell Sunny to give him a moment before he walked over to the sink and spat out the toothpaste. He scooped up a cup and rinsed his mouth before spitting once more. Sunny entered the bathroom since it seemed like he could. “Ah!’ Kel shook his head and wiped off his mouth. “Sorry about the noise. Did I wake you up? I dropped the soap and it knocked a bunch of stuff over.”

Sunny walked over to the sink and figured that now would be a good time to start brushing his own teeth too since he was already there. He grabbed his toothbrush and rinsed it before grabbing his toothpaste. He gazed at himself in the mirror as he brushed and saw Kel grinning at him from it before he grabbed his brush and began to fix his bedhead. Sunny himself still looked pretty sleepy. He wasn’t wearing his eyepatch, but he had gotten good at remembering to keep his eye closed so he didn’t have to look at it when he was in the bathroom. His hair was messy as well, which helped to cover it. He had marks on his face from his pillow. His outfit was the same one as it had been in his dreams. He couldn’t remember if that was what he had worn to bed or not. He wasn’t very concerned. 

“So! I have a plan.” Kel announced rather suddenly as he pulled his hair back and tied it into a high ponytail. Sunny blinked with surprise. He didn’t believe he’d ever seen his friend with his hair up. It looked really good on him. “Let’s sneak out. The family’s distracted and I just _know_ mom’s gonna make me do some chores or something since Hero’s home and can ‘show me how it’s done’.” He made air quotations with it. “Pfft. It’s not like I don’t know how to do it,” He must have been responding to the look on Sunny’s face, though Sunny couldn’t tell how he had been able to read his thoughts, “it’s just that it’s super boring! What’s the point of doing chores when I know mom’s gonna get on my case about how it’s not up to her standards and then Hero will do them anyway? She’s too picky.”

Sunny could understand that. Mari wasn’t nearly as pushy as Kel’s mom, but she had a very stringent way of doing the chores too. Luckily, Sunny didn’t really mind doing certain chores. They had worked out a pretty good routine between the two of them with Mari taking the ones she knew Sunny hated while also making sure Sunny still knew how to do them. After she had died, Sunny stopped wanting to do anything at all. He was grateful Hero had helped him out on that last day before he had moved out.

“So, I’m thinking we should sneak out. The window in the bedroom should be good, right? Then we don’t have to worry about going through the living room and getting caught! Hehe!” Kel grinned and then put his hands on his hips. He was ready, despite being barefoot. “We’ll sneak around front and then grab our shoes by the front door and make a run for it. It’ll be just like old times, right?”

There had been a couple of times that both Kel and Sunny had snuck out in the late evening in order to go to Hobbeez. The store stayed open pretty late, and the thrill of sneaking out had encouraged both boys to go for it. Sunny didn’t exactly know how Kel had managed to get out of his house in the past considering he was pretty sure his parents went to bed kinda late, but maybe he had been jumping out of the window that whole time. The very thought of it sent chills along his skin. He would’ve never been brave enough to do it.

Sunny finished brushing his teeth and rinsed his mouth before waving Kel out of the bathroom so that he could utilize it for the rest of his morning routine. He had to maintain a routine because it was one of the few things he knew would get him awake and ready for the day. Brush teeth, wash face, sun lotion on skin, use the toilet, count backwards from ten, ensure he was really awake. With all of those checked off without problem, Sunny proceeded to do the one thing he hadn’t really wanted to do but decided he would if only to make sure Hero didn’t worry about him: he put in his prosthesis.

It wasn’t something that was pleasant or easy to do. His mother had had to help him the first few times, and it had frustrated Sunny without fail. It wasn’t the final one that he would be receiving either which would make it look like he had never lost an eye, but he was dreading getting that one too. He didn’t like looking at it. He’d rather just wear the eyepatch. But his mother had insisted that Sunny should at least get the one that looked like a regular eye for the future in case he got tired of wearing the eyepatch and wanted to ‘fit in’ more. Maybe he would. Right now, he hardly cared. He still couldn’t see anyway.

This prosthesis didn’t look like an eye for now, but it would help keep the area healthy. So after struggling with it for a little bit, he got it in and thoroughly washed the area once more before he reapplied the lotion to his face. He should’ve changed up the order he had done the things in, but that was what he got for breaking his routine. Sunny kept his bad eye closed and tried not to let his bad mood show on his face as he exited the bathroom and returned to the bedroom. Kel was already there, shooting a foam basketball into the net above his boombox. He was doing pretty good at it for someone who was sitting down on the floor.

It was only when Sunny was getting changed into clothes he could wear outside did he realize that he had definitely not worn his Headspace pajamas to bed. He pulled on a fresh tee shirt and shorts and tucked his socks into his pocket since the route involved going out of the window. He put on his eyepatch and turned to Kel to show he was ready.

“Ready to go?” Kel asked. Sunny nodded. The taller boy pushed himself up and beamed. “Cool! Okay, lemme show you how it’s done!” He hurried over to the window and pushed the blinds up all of the way and opened the window. It took a little wiggling, but he managed to pop out the screen window as well and put it on the floor inside. “There! Think you can do it? You gotta climb out, hang from the window sill, and then just… drop! It’s not as far you think it is. It’s maybe… two of me? Little bit higher?” Kel measured himself with his hand and then raised it further over his head. “Something like that.”

Sunny poked his head out of the window and gauged the height. His skin prickled a little with the thought of falling before he brushed it off. Though some of that fear still lingered in him, more out of self-preservation than anything, Sunny was no longer afraid of heights. Besides, he’d jumped off of far higher heights than this in Headspace. Although, he hadn’t been able to die in Headspace.

...He was sure he would be fine.

“If you want, I can go first and catch you?” Kel suggested. “Though… you’ll have to be the one to put the screen back in and the window down before you drop…” The longer he spoke, the less confident he sounded. Eventually, the two fell into an awkward silence where they just gazed at each other. Kel pursed his lips. “This is a dumb idea, isn’t it?” Sunny didn’t say anything. “Yeah, it’s dumb. Okay, we’ll just go out the front. We’ll just be sneaky!” Kel went ahead and put the window back to the way it was before. “No worries. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to fit out the window anymore anyway. I’m a lot bigger than the last time I did it. It would’ve been super cool, though.”

The first route for their breakout attempt was scrapped. Kel scooped up his basketball and held a finger to his lips to tell Sunny to be quiet, as if Sunny wasn’t the quietest one of their group, before he led the way downstairs. It was clear that this older version of Kel was a little more experienced in breaking out of the house than his younger, more impulsive self. He walked down the stairs in a particular pattern which kept them from creaking under his weight. Sunny followed in his footsteps. They made it down to the lower hallway without being accosted. But this was where the hard part came in.

The boys took opposite sides of the entryway and peeked out into the living room and kitchen. Sunny could see the back of Kel’s mom at the kitchen counter blending something up and Sally on a high chair nearby. He didn’t see Hero or his father, though. Kel motioned for Sunny to follow him, and together the two hurried across the living room to the front door. Sunny put his socks on quickly while Kel grabbed his shoes to tie them. They didn’t get too far before they were caught.

“Oh, good morning!” Hero called to them as he poked his head around the hallway that led to the dining room. “I didn’t think you’d be up this early, Sunny- Wait. What are you two doing?”

"Oh, Kel and Sunny are awake?" Kel's father called from the other room.

“We’ve been caught!” Kel cried before he threw open the door to the house. “Run, Sunny!” The boy didn’t wait for Sunny, who was still struggling with his shoes, before he ran out of the door and jumped with impatience at the end of the driveway, waving his arms to get Sunny to hurry.

Sunny stumbled as he got his shoes on and then paused to look at Hero. Hero’s face was a little exasperated, but unsurprised. He glanced over his shoulder to see if the parents were coming before waving his hand to usher Sunny to go as well. Sunny closed the front door behind him and ran after Kel. The two of them burst into giggles as they ran all the way to the park before they paused to catch their breath a bit. Sunny felt his skin tingling from the excitement and absurdity of it all. He’d never had to do something like that before. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed either.

Kel grinned at him. “Heck yeah! That one deserves a high-five! Good job, Sunny!” He held up his hand, and Sunny met him halfway in his high-five. He felt great. “And look! Nobody’s at the court either. Let’s go play some ball!”

The boys walked over to the basketball court where Kel spun his ball on his finger. It was the same one that Hero had gotten him for Christmas all of those years ago, Sunny thought. It was dark with age and it was clearly worn, but it was taken care of enough that it still rebounded well when Kel bounced it. “I love coming here in the mornings before it gets too hot or the park’s too full. It’s a good time to get some shooting practice in.” Kel informed him before he passed the ball to Sunny. Sunny made sure to catch it and felt very proud that he had managed to do so. His day was looking up already.

He looked up at the basketball hoop. He hadn’t tried to play any kind of sports since his fight with Basil. His depth perception wasn’t the same as it once was. He could still remember the first few months and how difficult it had been to adjust to the new way of life. He was lucky in the sense that he had already been adapting to a lot of different things anyway. The loss of his eye was really just another thing. He had taken it in stride the best that he could.

He moved a little closer to the hoop and bounced the ball a few times. Then he took the shot. It completely missed the entire hoop, flying past it and out of the court to roll to a stop against the fence of the park. Kel ran after it and scooped it up before running back over. Sunny tried not to feel frustrated.

“Haha, you’re kinda rusty, huh?” Kel bounced the ball once before he shot as well. It hit the backboard and went right in. It was a short shot for him. He collected the ball and passed it back to Sunny to try again. Sunny didn’t move from his spot and focused. His next shot hit the board off to the left. He managed to grab it before it went too far. Kel whistled. “You seem to aim for the left.”

Sunny just passed the ball back to him. “...It’s not easy.” He said.

“Hm?” Kel looked at him. Sunny simply pointed at his eye. “Oh!” He looked embarrassed now. “Ah, right. Sorry, I totally forgot those kinds of things really mess with your aim. Don’t worry about it! Just keep trying. You’re really smart, Sunny, so I know you’ll get it!” Sunny felt some of his confidence return with his friend’s encouragement. Kel’s next shot didn’t make it in, but it was close. “Did Hero say anything as you left?”

Sunny shook his head and shot again. It was a little too forceful and it just ricocheted back to them. 

“That’s good. Man, I’m glad I have a brother who actually likes doing housework and stuff. I can’t really stand it.”

“...Do you… dislike your parents?” Sunny asked more out of curiosity than anything. He didn’t think Kel’s family had a bad relationship with each other, but he’d been thinking over Kel’s words about his family life over the past year or so. It seemed like his family had come down harder on him after Hero’s depression and then after he had gone off to college. Sunny had somewhat resented his parents for always comparing him to his perfect older sister even if he had agreed with them as well. He somewhat knew how Kel would feel in that case.

“Nope! Not at all.” Kel shot and made the basket this time. His face was completely open and honest. Kel had never been one to hide exactly what he was thinking. He passed the ball over, and Sunny paused to bounce it a few times. “Does it seem like that?”

Sunny tried to think of how to word his feelings. “They sound strict.” He said instead.

“That’s just cuz of Hero being the favorite.” Kel didn’t look bothered and as he said it. “I mean, Hero’s always been like that. Everyone loves him, but he’s also kind of a pushover because of it. Honestly, I prefer it when mom and dad rely on me more because it means Hero gets to do other stuff instead of caving to everything they want him to do. He likes doing housework, but everyone gets exhausted doing it. Besides, uh… after Mari’s death, I took up a lot of his work. So, I'm not too bad at it.”

Sunny shot the ball. He missed.

“My mom and dad have high expectations for me like they do for Hero. They just show it differently. I think they’re harder on him because they know he can do it, and that he’ll do it happily. But I also think they kinda forced him onto this doctor stuff. He’s been scared of disappointing Mom because he’s such a momma’s boy. Dad’s more carefree about things like me, so he seems to get me more than she does.” Kel backed up to do a long shot and easily landed it. Sunny was impressed. “I’ve never been great at school. It’s super boring. Mom realized that I’m just not really one for school, so she kinda gave up on pushing me as hard as she did for Hero. They still encourage me and stuff, but now it feels more like it’s at my own pace.”

Sunny understood. His own mother had done similarly for him when Sunny had lost interest in going to school. She hadn’t tried to force him when it was clear he was mentally ill. She had continued to try to support him to the best of her ability, but even if they hadn’t helped him he was glad she had been there for him in little ways. It was only with hindsight was he able to see how much his mother had tried while dealing not only with Mari’s death, but also her husband becoming estranged and leaving while her son had refused to leave his room on most days.

“Hero’s always had high expectations for me too without forcing them on me.” Kel added. He continued to shoot the ball when Sunny didn’t seem interested in going this turn. “He and Mari were both alike in that sense. They saw the best in you and me.”

Sunny’s fist clenched. When the ball came back to Kel, he looked towards Sunny with a serious, but gentle face. “That’s what did it for you, wasn’t it? The final straw? Mari’s expectations?”

Sunny stared at him, eye wide with shock. 

Kel’s face fell with his thoughts. “When you told us what happened at the hospital, it kinda just clicked for me. You didn’t have to tell me why. Thinking back on it, I could see your breaking point coming from a mile away. You’d always looked so upset and would try to put off violin practice. At some point you stopped wanting to play for us and had to be nagged to do it. And Mari… she’s always been a perfectionist. It didn’t bother me as much as a kid because that’s just how she was, but I remember there were times I was really annoyed by how she just didn’t want to accept things being a little less than perfect. It didn’t make sense to me.” He fell silent for a moment, just looking down at the basketball in his hand. Sunny had no idea what to say. “I’m sorry, man.” He looked back at Sunny once more, his heavy heart clear on his face. “I think if we had interfered sooner… maybe things could’ve been different.”

Sunny’s eyes fell close. He tried to breathe through it. Keep calm.

He heard Kel’s footsteps before he felt his hand squeeze Sunny’s arm. Sunny opened his eyes once more. Kel’s eyes were sympathetic. “Sunny, just know that I don’t think you’re a bad person for what happened. You or Basil. And we’re still best friends. Always. Get it?”

“Always.” Sunny agreed with a choked voice. He didn’t feel like he deserved forgiveness. It was hard to believe that he was receiving any of it.

“We all loved Mari… and none of us were there for each other when we needed it. We all made a lot of mistakes back then. I hope we can, I don’t know, talk about it and move on. Finally heal and get that peace that Aubrey talked about before.” Kel sighed and then he stepped back. He bounced the ball again, but it seemed more anxious than before. He didn’t seem to know what to do with himself. “I know we all need it. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of ignoring what happened back then for the sake of not upsetting everyone. Sometimes you gotta just cry it out.” He took a jumpshot for the basket. The ball went through the net with a swish.

Sunny quietly wondered if Kel had learned that from his fight with Hero. He didn’t ask. Instead, he watched his childhood friend and thought that Kel had grown up well. He was still a little awkward about things and was a little brash, but he had changed. He believed in Kel’s words. He could keep his wish in mind for when the day came that he had to tell everyone the truth and deal with the consequences as they come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was enjoyable writing Kel's thoughts out. I hope they felt in character for him. We don't get to see a lot of Kel really taking the lead on serious emotional conversations since Hero tended to lead those. I wanted his voice to be his own, but I also wanted people to hear Hero's own kinda voice in it. Kel and Hero grew up together, and I'm sure that Kel looked up to his brother a lot. Though he's a lot more brash than Hero, I like to think that Kel has a lot of thoughts of his own when the situation's serious. He's not the 12 year old boy in Sunny's dream world who forgets things every two minutes. He's a person just like everyone else, and he was just as affected by what had happened too. He just handled it the best out of the group. He's a cactus haha.
> 
> Here's another [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBcTCYRlXnc) to share! It's a much funnier one this time around. I'll also share the [other video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNP6x7AU3hg) by the same creator that cracks me the fuck up every time I watch it. I hope you enjoy them!


	13. The Same, but Different

Kel and Sunny returned back to the house a little later, mostly drawn by the fact that they were hungry and the possibility that Hero had cooked breakfast. It wasn’t unexpected when Kel was scolded for running off so early, but he’d managed to temper the scolding by explaining that he’d had to get some practice in and that he didn’t have any chores. Unfortunately, that meant that Kel had been given some chores to do instead. Which left Hero and Sunny to hang out for a little while and keep Kel company occasionally.

They took to the couch to watch some television and simply hang out while Kel swept the floor of the living room and cleaned up the various dog toys that were laying around because of Hector. Just because Kel had friends over did not mean he got to escape his duties around the house. Sunny would’ve helped him, but it was all easy stuff and he didn’t like doing chores himself.

“Dad said we can borrow his truck.” Hero said some time later after they had binged two episodes of some game show on the television. The singing and skits in it had been pretty entertaining. “Did we want to go today after Kel is done? It’s still pretty early, so it shouldn’t be too busy.”

Sunny shifted on the couch to sit up a little more. Throughout the show he had slumped further and further into the couch cushions. “Aubrey and Basil?” He asked.

“Oh, right. It’d probably just be easier to go pick them up instead of calling.” He glanced at his watch and considered the time. “We never actually decided on a time we were gonna do this. Or, uh, anything else really. Wow, we’re really winging this, huh?” He laughed a little bit before he stood and turned off the television. “Let’s go see if they want to go now. Kel should be done by the time we get back… hopefully.”

Sunny stood up as well and followed after Hero as he led the way to the backyard where his father was reading while Sally played in a playpen that had been brought out there. “Hey boys.” He greeted with a wave.

“Hey dad, me and Sunny are going to head out and see if Basil and Aubrey are ready, and if they are we’re gonna head up to the store. Is that alright?”

“That’s fine by me! I’ll be sure to tell your mom when she gets back.”

“Thanks!” Hero reentered the house. Sunny hung around just long enough to see Hero’s dad give him a big grin and a, “Drive safe!” before he followed after his friend. 

“We shouldn’t be gone too long.” Hero spoke as the boys put their shoes on at the front door. “Kel won’t even have time to miss us, so lead the way!”

Sunny was a little surprised he was taking the lead, but he didn’t mind it. He was kind of used to it by that point anyway. They left the house and made their way down the street. The air was thick with humidity as the sun rose high into the sky. It was going to be a hot one. He didn’t really want to go outside at all today if it was going to be like that, but maybe they might be able to go to the lake or something and cool off there. It might be nice. Sunny hadn’t been swimming in real life since the day he had very nearly drowned.

“Did you guys have fun at the park?” Hero asked, breaking the friendly silence that had lingered between them as they looked both ways before crossing the street to head towards Basil’s house. “I didn’t expect to see you two trying to sneak out of the house. Usually Kel just went out of the window upstairs.” Sunny looked at him. He’d known about that? His unsaid question must’ve been clear enough for Hero, who laughed in response. “I was actually the one to show him how to do it when we were… I think he was ten and I was thirteen? Something like that. We weren’t sure if we could do it, but we had wanted to try anyway. Two stories isn’t too far until you’re looking at the ground.” They turned the corner onto Basil’s street. “Anyway, we made it just fine, and Kel kept doing it every chance that he got. He actually got pretty good at it too. He stayed smaller a lot longer, though, so after a while I didn’t really want to do it anyway. He still proves how skilled he is at it once in a while, even though he’s almost as big as me now.”

Sunny had little doubt in his mind that Kel could absolutely wiggle his long limbs out of that window and drop to the ground. Hearing Hero admire that about him, though, made Sunny even more impressed by the feat. They should’ve tried it yesterday. Maybe he could convince Kel to show him later.

Hero took the lead and knocked on the door to Basil’s house. Sunny glanced around the yard at the many plants there. If Basil really did decide to become a florist, Sunny knew that the boy would do well at it. He was kind and caring, and handling plants was probably easier than handling people. Maybe Sunny could go and work with him if he never decided on a career for himself. Nothing really called for him.

_“Plain, simple, and bulbous, just like Omori.”_

Sunny huffed through his nose a little. Plain and simple might be right. Bulbous was a little much, though.

The door opened and revealed Basil on the other side. He was dressed simply today with a tee shirt and shorts. He gave them both a smile. “Oh, hi guys! I, uh, expected you to pop by eventually. What’s up?”

“Hey Basil. We’re thinking about doing the shopping trip today since my dad’s off from work and he gave the OK to take the truck. Are you free?” Hero asked.

“Yeah, I’m free!” He turned around to look back into his house before turning back again. “Um… let me go tell Polly I’m going to be gone for a while. Were… were there any plans for after the trip?”

“Nothing planned.” He looked to Sunny for confirmation before nodding at his own thought. “We’re kinda winging it for today. You’re welcome to hang out with us, if you want.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back. I just need to grab my things.” He closed the door then.

“A whole week you’re here… I don’t really want to waste that time.” Hero rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “But then again, it’s not really a waste of time if we’re all together, right? Since it’s summer vacation and all, I’m sure we’ll be together more often than not. So if there’s anything in particular you want to do, Sunny, just make sure you let us know. There’ll be plenty of downtime in between everything, so don’t worry about anything.”

Sunny thought about what kinds of things he wanted to do. Faraway Town didn’t have much, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t make their own fun. The only strange thing was that they weren’t the same kids they had once been. There were activities that maybe they were too old to do. Especially Hero, who was in college now. Was it weird for him to hang around with younger kids? Knowing Hero, probably not. He went along with whatever they did, but if he didn’t like it then he knew he could just say something. Whether or not he was shot down, though, was almost entirely up to Kel and Aubrey.

“I’m back.” Basil called after he opened the door and slipped out to join them. He had a backpack on. “Ready when you are. Is Aubrey already at the house?”

“Nope! We’re going to pick her up now.”

“Oh… okay!” Sunny took the lead once more as they walked across the street to Aubrey’s house. It still looked about as bad as the last time Sunny had seen it, though the yard looked a bit nicer at least. He knocked on the door and stepped back along with Basil and Hero. They waited, but nobody answered. The boys looked at each other.

“...Try again?” Hero suggested. “I’m… not sure Aubrey’s mom would answer if she was home.” Sunny tried knocking again, but there was still no answer. He decided to look around the side of the house instead. He didn’t see Aubrey’s bike there. She probably wasn’t home. He pointed this out to his friends. “Where could she be, then?” Hero asked as he contemplated it.

“Should we… just wait at your house?” Basil asked.

Hero shook his head. “Let’s just take a look around. We just need to find Aubrey’s bike, right? Then we’ll know where she is. Come on.” The group started towards the park instead. 

Basil glanced back at Aubrey’s house as they went. “...I know this is strange to ask now, but have either of you been in Aubrey’s house? I don’t think I ever have.”

“Oh. Yeah, we went in one time. It was… on Sunny’s last day here. We were going to get the photos back.” Hero said.

“Really?” He glanced down and shifted to grip the arms of his backpack. “I’m surprised she let you in. I… don’t think she likes people going in there. Not even her other friends.”

Hero rubbed at the side of his neck. “Well… I can understand why. She wasn’t very happy we went in there when we did.”

Basil looked sad. “I didn’t ask her because we… stopped talking, but… I’m guessing things were bad after her dad left.”

“Yeah, I think so too.” Hero took a deep breath and then let it out. “But I’m certain Aubrey will be fine. She’s always been strong. And we’re here to help her through it if she ever wants to talk about it.”

“Agreed.”

“Aubrey is like a gladiolus flower.” Sunny said. In his mind’s eye he could see the younger Aubrey kneeling next to the garden of Basil’s gladiolus flowers and beaming at him.

“Gladiolus?” Hero asked, tone curious. “What kind of flower is that?”

Basil laughed a little. “You remembered that too, Sunny? It always impresses me how good you are about that. Gladiolus flowers look like swords, so they represent someone who is strong of character and who is sincere and faithful to their ways. They don’t give up, a lot like Aubrey.”

“That does sound like her.” Hero said, eyebrows raised. “Is that the flower you were growing for her?”

“You mean the ones Sunny mentioned yesterday? Yeah.” He tucked his hair behind his ear. “Though I might have chosen other flowers to represent us now. Except Kel. Kel is still Kel.”

“I think out of all of us, Kel has stayed the same. Him and Sunny.”

Sunny shook his head. “No.” He told them as he watched an orange cat across the street walking away with a bit of trash in its mouth. “I don’t know if that’s true anymore.”

The other two were silent for a moment before Basil said, “I don’t know about that. I think… You’re still Sunny.”

Sunny looked back at his friends and met their eyes one-by-one before his mouth opened. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask if that was really such a good thing before he decided against it. He closed his mouth and turned back around. Instead he said, “Just like how Hero is still Hero, Aubrey is still Aubrey, and Basil is still Basil. The same, but different.”

“...Yeah.” Hero decided. “The same, but different.”

“I guess we all are.” Basil agreed as well.

Sunny wasn’t quite sure why, but it hurt to hear that truth. It was hard to accept that time was still going forward and changing. They weren’t the same as they once were. They weren’t the same people that Mari had known. And he didn’t like that. At all. But at the same time, they were still the same people. They weren’t unrecognizable. So maybe it wasn’t all bad. He wasn’t quite sure yet. He would figure it out with time, he supposed.

* * *

It took a bit of searching, but they found Aubrey’s bike at the entrance to Othermart. “She must be in here.” Hero pointed out as they walked in. The wave of cool air from the A/C washed over them, bringing relief to them as they entered deeper into the grocery store. Sunny breathed in the smell of fresh produce and looked around as they went, curious to see familiar faces from last year. He never really knew who or what he was going to run into whenever he came into the place. They searched the aisles, but didn’t spy Aubrey anywhere. So instead they headed towards the candy section to see if they could spot her there.

Sunny walked into the hallway from Othermart and exited into Sweetheart’s Castle on the other side. There were Sweetheart statues lining the southern wall and there was music playing around them. The aisles of candy looked more like bookshelves as maid sprout moles rushed by Sunny’s feet. He ignored them, looking around for Aubrey instead. He almost missed her considering her hair caused her to blend in with the excessive amount of pink in the building.

“Hey Aubrey.” Hero greeted as the boys walked up to her. She wasn’t alone, Sunny realized after a moment. When Aubrey turned to face them, the castle returned to the normal candy store. Next to Aubrey was Kim and Charlie.

“Oh. What are you guys doing here?” Aubrey asked instead of greeting them.

“Ewww, it’s the NERDS!” Kim taunted before she laughed a little. Aubrey nudged her. “I’m kiddin’, I’m kiddin’. How’s it hanging?”

“Oh, uh, good.” Hero said. “Are we interrupting?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Aubrey glanced at her friends before turning back to Hero. “What’s up?”

“We were gonna go do the shopping today, if you’re free.”

“Really?” Aubrey thought about it for a moment, then asked, “...Is it alright if my friends come?” She motioned with her head to Charlie and Kim. “I was actually going to come ask you later today about it.”

“Sure! There’s room.” Hero tucked his hands into his pockets. “Did you want to go now, or later?”

“What do you guys think?” Aubrey turned to the other girls.

“I’m down.” Kim said. “As long as I’m back before the sun sets, I’m good to go. Charlie?”

Charlie was quiet for a long moment before saying softly, “.........Need to tell my mom.”

“Right! How about we meet’cha? I gotta go home and get money anyway.” Kim put her hands in her pockets, which seemed suspiciously big. She moved around Aubrey with Charlie following along behind her as she moved a little quickly to the store’s entrance. “See you in a little bit, Aubrey!”

Hero watched them go with some confusion, but he didn’t say anything. Basil was the one that asked, “Um… Aubrey… was Kim…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Aubrey said, hands pushing at Sunny and Basil’s backs to get them moving. “Your timing’s good anyway. Where’s Kel? Surprised he’s not with you.”

“He’s finishing his chores. Actually, we should get back before he uses us as an excuse to chase us down.” Hero said. 

“Great. Let’s go then.”

They left the store without any hassle. Sunny noticed that the candy lady was missing, which probably explained how they all managed to get in and out without getting into too much trouble. He didn’t exactly want to stick around to deal with it anyway. She kind of unnerved him.

“Can we really all fit in the truck?” Basil asked as they left Othermart. Aubrey grabbed her bike and walked it alongside her as the group headed back to Hero’s house. “There’s only the front to sit in… right?”

“Well… yeah.” Hero admitted. “But all of you are old enough that we shouldn’t get in trouble if you ride in the bed of the truck. Just as long as you’re all sitting down in it. It shouldn’t be a problem.” Basil gave Sunny a wary look. Sunny didn’t know if there was a law like that, but Hero would be the one to trust with that kind of information. He wasn’t the type to break laws for the fun of it.

“Aw, sweet.” Aubrey said. “I call the bed, then.”

“I… I’d rather sit up front… if that’s okay.” Basil murmured.

“Then I guess that leaves you in the back with the others, Sunny. Hope that’s alright?” Hero asked. Sunny nodded. He was actually kind of looking forward to it. He’d never ridden in the back of a truck before. It made it feel even more like an adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a head's up, I might end up repeating some video recs just because I'm too lazy to go back and check if I've rec'd something already lmao. Here's today's [video rec!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8G3uQDcLo)
> 
> Thank you for everyone who reads and comments on my story! I adore all of them! And I especially love the longer reviews! Seeing your own thoughts and interpretations is really fun!


	14. Shopping

Sunny closed his eyes as the wind ripped through his hair and he relaxed back against the wall of the truck bed next to Aubrey. With five teens in the back of the truck, there was little room for everyone to stretch out without legs crossing over each other. Sunny sat with his legs bent against his chest so he was fine, but he could see how every now and again Kel and Kim would kick each other playfully to try to steal more leg room. Charlie was kind enough to at least bring her own legs in and sat cross-legged and relaxed with her own eyes closed. The trip itself wasn’t one that would take long. It was only about a fifteen minute drive to the town with the outdoor shopping plaza they were going to be stopping at. Hero was purposefully taking the back roads just in case to not risk any police seeing them even if they were pretty sure they were legal. The sun was nice when there was a good breeze to keep them cool.

“Yo Kel, I gotta ask…” Kim said when a lull in the conversation occurred, “what the hell is up with your brother being so hot?”

“Dunno. He’s always been like that.” Kel said with a shrug. “Mom says he takes after our dad.”

“Okay… not to be weird, but… Aubrey, have you ever… y’know…?” Kim raised her eyebrows.

“Ew! Kim!” Aubrey cried, aghast. “No! He’s like… my big brother or something!”

Kel guffawed, hand slapping against his leg as he threw his head back. “Aubrey and Hero…! That’s hilarious!!”

Aubrey’s cheeks were red. “There’s no way!”

“Hey, I was just asking! There’s nothing weird about it! I’ve had friends who’ve liked _my_ older brother too!” She grumbled a little, though she looked amused at Aubrey’s reaction.

“Sh-Shut up, Kel!” Aubrey shouted when Kel continued to laugh. She reached over to hit him, but he brought up his arms to block her attack. It only made him laugh a bit more. Sunny rather liked the sight of Aubrey’s blushing and angry face. He wished that Basil was back there so maybe he would’ve been able to snap a picture. Though, Sunny wasn’t sure if Basil even had his camera on him.

A sharp couple of knocks on the rear window of the truck grabbed their attention and Hero gave them a pointed look in the rearview mirror. Aubrey pouted, but moved back to her original spot. Kel wiped at his eyes as the last of his giggles escaped him.

“Is it really that weird?” Kim demanded, confused. “I mean… jeez, you’re the only girl hanging out with a buncha boys your age. It’s not a weird question!”

“I mean, it’s not.” Kel agreed as he beamed. “But… Aubrey’s _totally_ not Hero’s type. If he really has one, I mean. He’s only ever dated Mari.”

“Mari?” Kim asked, confused.

Sunny and Kel’s gazes jumped to Aubrey, surprised that she had never told her friends. Aubrey didn’t meet their eyes, but she took the question in stride. “She’s Sunny’s older sister.” Her voice softened a little bit. “She died a couple years ago.”

“Oh.” Kim’s entire tone changed then. Her teasing mood was gone and a familiar sympathetic look appeared on her face and in her eyes. She directed her next words towards Sunny, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“You don’t remember her?” Kel asked. “I mean, it was a while ago and we were all pretty little, but we used to play together at the park before Aubrey moved to town.”

“Nah, I don’t remember much about that time.”

“...I remember her.” Charlie commented quietly. “She was really pretty and nice.”

Kel and Aubrey both smiled. “Yeah, she was.” Aubrey agreed. She looked a little surprised that Charlie was talking so much.

Kim looked in through the rear window of the truck at Hero. The group fell silent, each thinking about their own things, before she said, “I guess it would be hard to compete with Mari.”

“What? Are you interested in my brother, Kim?” Kel asked, shocked.

“What? No! Stupid!” Kim scoffed. “I just meant…” she waved her hand carelessly, “like, in general.”

Sunny laid his head on his arms and knees and stared off the back of the truck, watching the road beneath them disappear into the distance as the shadows of the trees they passed flickered above them. It never really occurred to him that any of them might start dating, let alone Hero. He’d always been someone who had been paired with Mari in his mind. It felt almost like betrayal to both her and Sunny’s memories to think of him moving on. 

He squeezed his eyes shut against the thought and felt sickened once more. His thoughts selfishly turned inward, Omori’s voice whispering to him about how perfect things were in Headspace. It was a voice he heard occasionally, usually attributed to negative emotions, but not one that he liked to indulge. Nevertheless, he was always there. He was part of Sunny.

**_You’re selfish for wanting everything to stay the same._ **

He wished that Omori wasn’t so right about so many things.

“Sunny?” Aubrey’s hand touched Sunny’s shoulder, and he startled just a little. Kel and Kim had moved topics. How long had Sunny been zoning out? “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” Sunny responded, though he wasn’t really sure if that was true. He wanted to curl up in his bed and sleep once more to escape the ache in his chest. He hoped that today wasn’t going to be a bad day. He just wanted to enjoy his time with his friends.

Aubrey squeezed his shoulder then. Her light eyes spoke about her worry for him and her understanding. Sunny wondered if she felt a similar ache when talking about Mari. He didn’t know. He wasn’t sure if he should wish for it. He didn’t want to burden his friends. “It’s okay.” Aubrey assured him softly. Though her face didn’t show her expressions nearly as much as her younger self, Sunny didn’t need to see them to hear her emotions in her voice. “It’s okay.”

He decided to trust her, and once again ignored the darkness that hovered on his periphery. Another day, he swore to himself. He would confront that darkness another day.

* * *

The shopping plaza in the neighboring town was distinctly bigger than the small one in Faraway Town. There were multiple brand name companies that had set up shop in the area considering the population of the town it was in and the people that it catered to. It was not the first time that Sunny had come to this place, but it didn’t make it any easier to actually buy anything there. It wasn’t that everything was expensive; it was just that high schoolers didn’t tend to make enough money to go on the shopping spree that such a place encouraged. There were so few opportunities to have everything at their disposal when they had grown up in a small town, so being in the shopping plaza caused money to burn in their pockets. Even as Sunny climbed out of the back of the truck, his eyes were glued to the game store just on the other side of the parking lot.

Focus. They had specific things to buy today. Sunny had money, but not enough to go spending it willy-nilly. Not when there were going to be future opportunities to buy things at the beach.

“Here we are!” Hero announced as the group headed to the sidewalk and out of the way of cars driving to find or leave parking spots. “We have a couple of clothing stores to choose from, if we want to look around a bit.”

“Are we only buying clothes?” Aubrey asked. “I want to look around for other stuff too.”

“Up to you guys.” Hero said with a shrug. “We still need to check out the photo albums and some beach things, but other than that I’m not in a rush.”

“Oh, sick!” Kel threw himself at Sunny, wrapping an arm over his shoulder with one arm and pointing with the other. “Sunny! Check out that game store! You think they have the latest Pet Rock game? I heard it was supposed to be out now with better graphics and everything!”

“We could stop by!” Basil agreed. “I, uh, want to look as well!”

“Focus, boys!” Kim reprimanded. “We’re on a mission, ain’t we?”

“Kim’s right.” Hero agreed. “How about we get what we came here for first, and then we’ll wander?” They entered the nearest clothing store that appeared to be one of the cheaper, well-known companies. The shiny tiled floor reflected the fluorescent lights above. The smell of perfumes filled the air from the nearby perfume section. Sunny sneezed.

“Bless you." Aubrey said automatically to Sunny. Then she said to the others with a wave, "We’ll see you guys later. Where should we meet up?”

“Huh?” Kel demanded, surprised. “You’re leaving?! Why? We’re supposed to be shopping together!”

Kim sneered a little, “Ew, who wants to go shopping with _you_?”

“We’re going off on our own.” Aubrey said. “We’ll meet up later.”

“What the heck!” Kel frowned.

Hero didn’t seem to have a problem with it. “Okay, sure. You have my number, right? Just give us a call when you’re done and we’ll meet up.”

“You’ll probably be finished before us.” Aubrey added. “So we’ll meet you instead.”

“Got it.”

“Hero!” Kel complained.

“Come on, Kel.” Basil patted Kel’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“I thought we were all gonna hang together.” Kel shoved his hands into his shorts pockets as the group split into two and went their separate ways. “Why did they bother to come if they weren’t going to shop with us?”

“Kel…” Hero gave his brother that complicated look Sunny was familiar with that just said he was surprised he had to explain this out loud. “We’re going shopping for bathing suits. The girls want to look for their outfits alone.”

“So?” Kel still genuinely didn’t seem to get it. “She’s acting like we’ve never seen her in a swimsuit or something. What does it matter what she picks out now?”

Hero looked to Sunny and Basil as if they might be able to help him explain, but both boys quickly shook their heads. They were staying out of this one. He rubbed at the back of his head. “Well… Aubrey’s not a kid anymore. She was twelve the last time we all went swimming together. I’m pretty sure she and the other girls want to… look good?”

“It’s not like they’re trying to impress us.”

“That doesn’t mean they don’t want to look cute.”

“...I don’t get it.” Kel finally said.

“It’s alright, Kel. You don’t need to understand now anyway. Just… be aware that we’re not kids anymore, okay?” 

Sunny couldn’t help but wonder what kind of bathing suit Aubrey would pick out. She had always been kinda tomboyish, so he felt weird picturing her in anything that would be particularly feminine. But at the same time, the idea of her wearing something distinctly more mature made him excited. The fact that it would remain a mystery to him until the day they all went swimming just heightened that excitement. He was glad that the girls went off on their own. He wasn’t sure how to handle being surrounded by girl clothes anymore.

“You know…” Basil murmured to Sunny while the brothers were talking with each other, “you’ve got that dreamy look on your face, Sunny. The same one you got when you would look at the pictures I took of Aubrey. Are you…?” He trailed off knowingly, a small teasing smile on his face. Sunny felt his cheeks and ears heat up, which only made Basil chuckle a little. “Don’t worry. I’m kinda looking forward to it too, you know? Um… do you still… maybe have a little crush?”

Sunny looked away, unsure. Though his cheeks still burned, he wasn’t really sure what to make of his past emotions for Aubrey. Everything that he felt towards his friends was complicated now. He didn’t think he even had the capacity to untangle the knots of the different feelings he had on the matter of any one person. But he could admit that he still liked all of them. His childhood crush hardly felt different from admiration, so it wasn’t easy to tell.

Basil’s teasing smile softened as he recognized the complicated look on Sunny’s face. “Don’t worry. I get it.”

Sunny was relieved.

They arrived in the men’s section of the store and located the bathing suits. The designs weren’t anything too wild or complicated. Sunny wasn’t looking for anything flashy anyway. Something that was cheap, plain, and comfortable would be enough for him. He looked through the clothes to see if he could find some grey trunks.

“That actually reminds me.” Hero said as he scooted up next to Sunny and looked in the bigger sizes. “Hey Sunny, are you still scared of swimming?” Sunny blinked at him with surprise.

“Huh? Scared of swimming?” Kel asked. “Sunny, you’re scared of swimming?”

“No.” Sunny said. “I… I was afraid of drowning… again.” He confessed.

“What!” Kel yelped. “I had no idea. Man, and I sent you in after Basil that one time too… I’m sorry.”

Sunny shook his head. It was fine. It had all worked out anyway.

“Why do you think I jumped in there so quickly, Kel?” Hero asked, voice just a touch scolding. “Mari didn’t want to let Sunny anywhere near the water after he'd nearly drowned.”

“I mean… I remember that. I just didn’t know Sunny was actually scared of it.” Kel looked a little ashamed.

“I’m not scared now.” Sunny reassured them. “I’m okay.”

“Haha, I wish I could say the same.” Basil admitted. “I still don’t really know how to swim.”

“We’ll just be careful at the beach.” Hero said, pulling off one of the bathing suits from the rack to look at the material inside of it. “We did just fine last time. It’ll be fun.”

“Y-Yeah! I’m going to bring an inner tube anyway. I like the ocean even if I can’t swim well.” Basil said. Sunny walked over to a different rack and grabbed some Hawaiian-print board shorts. He gave them to Basil. That got a laugh out of the boy. “Uh, no thanks, Sunny.”

“Good on you getting over your fears!” Kel praised Sunny as he ruffled his hair a bit. Sunny fixed it afterwards. “Maybe you can teach Hero how to do it!”

“Hey, c’mon. I’m not _that_ bad.” Hero said.

“You… so are, bro.”

Hero didn’t respond, though by the look on his face it was clear he was a little embarrassed about Kel being right. Sunny wished that he really could give some tips on helping Hero get over his fears, but Sunny didn’t really think that the way he had gone about it was something that anybody could simply replicate. Hero would have to find another way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am with another [video recommendation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxV7a4FoOE)! I actually just found this one this morning, so I hope you guys enjoy it too!
> 
> I'm also adding a link to a [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5DsC0NyC8M) that I think would make a good Omori animation, though I don't have the skill to make one. I can only make them in my head, hahaha. I hope you guys like this song too.
> 
> Thank you so much for all of the support so far!


	15. Was She...?

Unsurprising to any of them, the boys found their swimsuits a lot faster than any of the girls did. Sunny wasn’t sure if it was just because the girls were taking their time, or if maybe they had harder choices to make. He didn’t envy being a girl. He had remembered going on shopping trips with his mom and Mari and being bored out of his mind while Mari had tried on two tops that had been similar but hadn’t been able to decide between the two. He couldn't to see the difference between them back then, though Mari had explained that one was tighter on her chest than the other and that “Hero might say something”. Whatever that meant. Hero always gave Mari compliments on her new clothes, so he didn't really understand the problem. Sunny never had an issue with shirts. Maybe he never would.

Instead of just leaving the store, the boys decided to walk around and take their time to look at stuff since they had nothing better to do and they hadn’t wanted to abandon the girls in the store. They circled around from the men’s section, to the baby section, to the kids section, before finally ending up in the women’s section. It wasn’t hard to spot Aubrey’s pink hair among the swimsuits there.

“Helloooo!” Kel called as he threw himself at Aubrey. Kim let out a yelp and Charlie had jumped a little at the sudden attack, but Aubrey responded by reflexively punching Kel right in the face. Kel cried out and fell on his butt, holding his nose. “Ow! That hurt!”

“Jesus, Kel!” Aubrey crossed her arms, unrepentant as she glared at him. “Don’t just jump on me like that. How many times have I told you?”

Kel chuckled and rubbed at his face. “I thought I could scare you.”

“You didn’t.”

“You deserved that!” Kim added. “You don’t learn, stupid!”

Hero helped Kel to his feet as Aubrey demanded, “Why are you all here?”

“We got our suits.” Basil said as Sunny pointed to Basil’s backpack. He had brought it to help carry their bought items back and reduce the use of plastic bags. He had another bag inside of it in case they ran out of room in the backpack but still had more stuff to carry. 

“Yeah, we were just walking around.” Hero agreed.

“Well go away.” Aubrey turned Sunny around and gave him a little push to get him going. “We’re not done!”

“Fine, fine!” Kel stuck his tongue out at her. “Then we’re gonna go to another store.”

“What! It’d better not be the game store!” She pointed sharply at him. “Bathing suits weren’t our only mission. Focus on the task at hand, Kel.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Kel pouted, but it was clear at least to Sunny that he had totally forgotten the other half of their shopping objective today.

Hero decided to swoop in and save the day before the two could really begin to bicker by throwing an arm around Kel and yanking him back towards the main pathway out of the clothing section. “We’ll be at the general store a couple doors down! Meet us there when you’re done!” Kel sputtered at his brother’s manhandling, slapping his arm to get him to let go. Sunny and Basil hurried to follow their steps.

“S-See you later!” Basil called to the girls. Charlie waved at them as Kim laughed and Aubrey smirked. When they were far enough away, Basil breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s… kind of embarrassing being around all those girl clothes, huh?”

Hero snickered as he finally released Kel, who proceeded to try to jump on him much like he used to when he had been a lot smaller. It only caused the brothers to both stumble because Hero didn’t catch Kel’s legs to properly piggyback him, and Kel was only looking to topple Hero over. They caught themselves and pulled away from each other when they were given stern glares by a couple of older patrons to the store.

Sunny was amused by their antics. He nodded in response to Basil’s words. “Kind of, yeah.”

“I just find it weird.” Kel admitted.

“That’s because we didn’t grow up with sisters.” Hero said. “By the time Sally is big enough to start wearing… anything close to what Aubrey’s looking at, maybe your opinion will change.”

“Ew, gross!” Kel laughed. “I don’t want to picture Sally wearing those! She’s still a baby, Hero!”

“I’m just saying that it’ll happen eventually.”

They exited the store and headed deeper into the outdoor plaza to find a gigantic chain general store. Sunny didn’t really go out anymore, but he remembered getting utterly lost in a place similar to this one when he had been little. He had ended up in the toy section and had sat on the floor playing with what loose toys he could find until his father and Mari had located him.

“So, what all are we getting?” Kel asked as he immediately got distracted by other things around them as they entered the store. He walked over to the aisle of greeting cards to look over them. Sunny grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it over to the group.

“Let’s see…” Hero counted off on his fingers, “Beach toys and supplies, disposable cameras, photo albums. And… I guess anything else we want? But those are the main things.”

“Oh right!” Kel cried. “We need to get some beach toys! I have no idea what happened to our old ones!” He spun back around on his friends, arms spread with excitement. “Then let’s head over to the toy section!”

Sunny was pretty sure most of their beach stuff had been scattered throughout Faraway Town. He remembered seeing the plastic containers they had used to dig sandcastles and the plastic shovels at the lake and on the playground. But then again, they could’ve easily been someone else’s. The town was so small that for the most part children left their non-beloved toys everywhere.

“What exactly did we want to buy?” Basil asked curiously. “Aren’t we a little, um, old to just play in the sand?”

“Psssssh!” Kel scoffed. “That’s such an old person's way of thinking, Basil! Just because we’re older we’re not allowed to do things that kids do? That sucks! I say we do what we want.”

“Agreed.” Hero said as he checked his phone and then typed out a message to someone. “I think the one thing about getting older that stinks is that we have to ‘act like adults’. Don’t worry about what other people think and do what you want, Basil.”

“Take your own advice, bro.”

“Aw, jeez.” Hero frowned at him. “C’mon, Kel.”

“Just saying.” Kel shrugged. Sunny wondered if this was just a common argument between the brothers now that they were older. It was a bit shocking to him. He had become far too used to the sibling dynamic between the brothers in his Headspace. Back then, Kel and Hero didn’t argue too much at all. It had felt a lot like a caretaker and child role, though it was one that Hero didn’t seem to mind at all and that Kel had fun with. It was different now, from what he could see. Both of them were different in their own ways.

“You’re right.” Basil agreed with a hesitant smile. “I… didn’t really think of it that way. I’ve, uh, never really just done whatever I wanted.”

“Well… do you want to get beach toys?” Kel asked, turning around and walking backwards. They entered the toy section and looked around for where they could find stuff to use outside. “I can still make an awesome sandcastle!”

“Hmm… sure! Oh, actually… maybe we can get a badminton set?”

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

“Great idea!” Hero agreed, beaming. “If we all chip in a little, we can get the one with a net too!”

It was difficult to not want to spend their money on a lot of the stuff they saw in the sports section located near the toys. There were many options that sounded like fun that they could use during the upcoming beach trip. Kel grabbed a volleyball with the insistence that there was always a volleyball net somewhere along the beach. They grabbed a badminton set and threw it into the cart. Hero found a small ball that could be used to skip across the water for some fun that way. They caved in and added two boogie boards to the cart with the decision that they would let Aubrey choose if they needed a third or not. Sunny grabbed an inner tube for himself so that he could float with Basil in the ocean, and he also got a better pair of goggles since the ones that he brought were pretty old and he admittedly didn’t know if they would hold up during the trip.

It was a lot more fun than Sunny had expected. As the group of boys became distracted from their main purpose and reentered the toy section, they found themselves seriously contemplating buying some games to play at the beach house they were renting. And thinking about what could be used at the house only made them daydream about the firepit, roasting marshmallows, and everything in between. Suddenly, the beach trip seemed too far away. Sunny wanted the weekend to come faster and stay as long as possible.

They decided to wait until the girls joined them before potentially wasting their money on more things. Kel and Sunny both set off a bunch of noisy tester toys, which caused all four of them to flee while giggling, hoping to avoid scrutiny from any of the people working or browsing nearby. It really felt like old times.

“Okay, okay.” Hero said as they ended up in the home goods while hiding from the sounds of lasers and little robotic voices. “Let’s not get kicked out.”

Kel was still laughing to himself. “Did you see that lady’s face? I’ve never seen someone so offended!”

“Haha, that was pretty funny, yeah!”

“That was fun.” Basil was beaming, and Sunny couldn’t help but stare wondrously at the sight. It had been a long time since he had seen that face in person. “Where to next?”

“Actually…” Hero thought for a moment and then said, “Basil, Kel, c’mere a second. Hang out there, Sunny.” He waved the boys over while Sunny waited and watched them curiously. They walked only a few paces away before Hero hid his mouth behind his hand and whispered to them. The conversation was short, but ended with Kel and Basil giving him a thumbs up. Basil then jogged back over while Kel and Hero went off with the cart.

“They’re going to go grab something and thought it would be quicker if we split up.” He explained. “So… what do you think? I was, um, hoping to go find something anyway.” He looked a little nervous suddenly. And that was when Sunny realized it was the first time he was completely alone with Basil since their fight. He wondered if Basil was thinking about that too. It occurred to him that his initial hesitation that he’d had when they’d first gone to Basil’s house was gone. He felt at ease around his friend.

He nodded. “Sure.” He said.

Basil looked relieved. Whatever tension he’d had bled out of him as he smiled. “Great! Um, let’s go grab a basket since they took the cart.” The two boys walked back to the front of the store and grabbed a handbasket instead. Sunny followed Basil’s lead since he didn’t know exactly what they were going for. Basil filled him in as they did. “I… wanted to use this opportunity to buy something. I’m… making a gift. F-for Mari.”

Sunny only looked at his friend. Basil’s smile was nervous as he watched his feet while walking. They were back in the toy section and going up and down the aisles looking for whatever it was that Basil was searching for.

“...Do you think she’d want it? I haven’t… I haven’t gone to see her since the funeral. I usually... asked Polly to deliver something for me.” His hair blocked his expression from Sunny’s sight. “...I’m sorry.”

“Hero didn’t go to see Mari until last year.” Sunny said in hope of comforting his friend. Basil didn’t respond, so he kept going, “I think she would like it.” If she could forgive Sunny, she could forgive Basil.

The aisle just seemed to go on forever. Sunny lost focus on the toys they passed and didn’t really take notice of the lack of other shoppers. He could only focus on Basil. 

“I’m scared.” The boy confessed softly. His hands clenched around the basket in his grip and they trembled a little. “After what we did… after what happened…” The store was getting dimmer. There were shadows that leaked from their footsteps across the linoleum. “Do you really think she’d be okay with getting a gift from me? From… from us?”

Sunny’s heart was pounding faster. The words that he’d had to comfort his friend were dying in his throat. He didn’t like this. But he persisted nonetheless. He wished that he could respond.

Basil came to a stop, and Sunny found himself just a step out of touch with him. They stood across from each other. Basil’s shoulders were shivering. Sunny’s hands clenched into fists. “I want to believe she would forgive us.” Basil said, “But… I don’t know if I can really believe that. Because there’s one thing that’s been stuck in my head since that day… the day Mari died…”

Sunny wanted to run.

Basil’s head lifted, and his panicked and terrified eyes were red. His pupils shuddered as he brought a hand to his chest. “Sunny… Do you know? Do you if… was Mari still alive… when we hung her?”

Sunny felt like his heart might stop. He couldn’t open his mouth to respond. Something darted in and splattered like blood across Basil, and the boy screamed. The appendages shot out at Sunny and Sunny squeezed his eyes shut.

Nothing happened.

His eyes opened and he was completely alone. The store was bright again. And Sunny’s breathing was burdened and aching, like every inhale was against the will of the world around them. He couldn’t really grasp the abrupt transition right away. He took a moment to look around him, wondering where Basil could’ve gone. This was real, right? It was hard to tell. He wasn’t in the toys any longer. He had somehow wandered back to the home goods section.

He turned around and startled to see himself in a full length mirror. He looked pale and sweaty. His eyes were wide and fearful. His stomach churned. Hanging behind him was Mari. Her long black hair seemed to brush against the back of Sunny’s neck. She swayed a little in the breeze. Her arms were limp at her sides and she was too high up for him to see her face.

His heart was pounding in his ears. He covered his face as if he could hide and hold himself back. The world seemed to close in and around him. He wanted to think of nothing and see nothing. He wanted to be alone in a little white, empty room. He wanted to become nothing. But he couldn’t get the image of Mari’s corpse staring at him. He shouldn’t have looked back. He just… shouldn’t have… looked back.

“Sunny?” The voice was so far away. Sunny felt like he was sinking deeper. He wanted to be swallowed up. He curled in on himself. He was afraid. He both wanted to be alone, and not alone. “Sunny!”

There was a hand on his shoulder. He wanted to scream thinking it was Mari, but it sounded nothing like her. It was Basil. Some sick part of him was furious that he was there, but a larger part was so grateful. He pulled his face from his hands as his vision swam half with darkness and half with light. Basil’s face came into focus, just as scared as Sunny felt.

“Sunny…!” Basil’s expression broke as his heart did. His hands squeezed Sunny’s shoulders before he grabbed his hands instead. He felt a little steadier with someone to hang onto. “It’s okay. It’s okay, Sunny. There’s nothing here. There’s nothing here.”

Sunny didn’t know if that was true. He was terrified to look in the mirror once more. Mari was there. She was always with him.

“Trust me.” Basil whispered. “There’s nothing here.”

Out of everyone, Basil would know right?

Sunny closed his eyes again and tried to breathe through it. Calm down, he told himself. Just breathe. It’s not real. Focus on what’s real and let everything else fall away. Basil was real, right? He was here. He was holding Sunny’s hands like an anchor in the storm. He would trust that grasp. They had promised to be there for each other. This time, Sunny wouldn’t fail him.

He calmed down and the world felt like it was back in center. He opened his eyes once more. Basil tried to smile at him, though it was still very clearly shaken. “There you go.” He praised quietly. “You’re okay.”

Sunny could still feel the sweat on his skin as the two of them stood up from their crouches together. Basil hung onto one of Sunny’s hands and grabbed the basket from the floor. Sunny felt steadier, and he risked a look at the mirror. Mari was gone. There was only Basil and Sunny there, staring into the mirror cautiously together. Basil’s eyes drifted back to Sunny.

“...You wandered off when I wasn’t looking.” Basil answered the question that Sunny hadn’t yet formed in his mind. He started walking, taking his friend with him. Sunny went willingly. “What happened to you?”

Sunny wasn’t sure how to possibly explain what happened. “I had a nightmare.” He said instead. “And I had a hard time waking up.”

If it had been anyone else, he was sure he would’ve been questioned. But Basil must have understood what he had meant. “I hate when that happens.”

He wondered at what point the Basil he had been with had stopped being the real Basil. Or if that Basil had been just as real as this one. He was too scared to ask. “Me too. I hate it a lot.” He looked down. “Thank you for finding me.”

Basil squeezed his hand once more reassuringly. “You’re welcome. I know you would do the same for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mood whiplash: the chapter.  
> I hope I managed to capture some of that dark atmosphere from the game.  
> While I'm aware that the game specifically says "this person is not breathing" in reference to Mari, there's a lot that can be considered in the situation that can hint that maybe she wasn't completely dead yet. I won't go into details, but some of the things include what is found in the final photo album's datamined comments on the situation (Why were Mari's eyes open when she was hung when it specifically states that they were closed "like she was sleeping" before?), and the fact that medically there are reasons the fall could've made her stop breathing for a period of time and/or Sunny, in shock, couldn't recognize if she was actually breathing.
> 
> ANYWAY, I'm not saying she was or was not already dead. But I like the idea that maybe the fall didn't definitively kill her. Which, honestly, would make things a LOT more traumatic when the kids look back and see her eyes are open when they were supposed to be closed. It's a possibility that I wanted to haunt Sunny with.  
> 
> 
> Here are two [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrSXp6h4JJM) [recommendations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtG5dj8FTks) that are both short but very excellent!


	16. Hands

Sunny liked to hold hands. It was something he had grown up with and it was a familiar comfort that had extended as far back to when he had first started walking. He didn’t look like it, but he was an affectionate person. He was just awkward about showing it and knew better than to just initiate physical contact out of nowhere. He only hugged people when he really felt like doing it. Mari had loved his hugs. Sunny had adored her hugs even more. She was the one who had gotten him used to holding hands. They were hugs that were more appropriate for any time. So, Sunny liked to hold hands.

He hadn’t held hands in a long time, though. He had actually forgotten about how much he had liked it after Mari had died. He had hated his hands. They were the hands that had killed Mari. They were the hands that he looked at and felt sick about. They were the hands that held knives and threw punches. They were the hands that wanted to kill him just like they had killed Mari. He didn’t want to hold hands with people because of it. 

Basil had held his hand after Mari’s death. Sunny had reacted coldly to anyone’s hugs during that time, so Basil had squeezed his hands instead. They were Sunny’s last grip on what felt like his humanity. He had promised that he wouldn’t let go of that hand. The hands that had pushed Mari fit surprisingly well with the ones that had made the noose to hang her body. The thought of that had sickened him. He had hated Basil. But he had hated himself more. So he had let go of that hand and had not looked back. He had locked everyone out of his mind and he was left completely alone. Mari could hug him in his dreams where his hands were clean of her blood. Nevermind the fact that they had held a knife, simply waiting for the last time he would use it to stab himself and never wake up again.

Basil had never forgotten how much Sunny had loved holding hands. It was clear he enjoyed it as well. Despite the broken promise between them, Basil’s hand still reached out and took his own. The same hand that had destroyed Sunny’s eye. The same hand that had punched Basil in his eye in return. They didn’t fit together as well. Basil’s hand was sweaty and too warm. Sunny’s was too cold and loose. But it was nice. Sunny liked it.

They held hands as they walked around the store and searched for the item that Basil wanted to get. He actually was trying to make a gift for Mari, so that part at least had been real. Sunny left the entire planning to Basil, though, since he had no idea what the boy was up to. It wasn’t until they found the pinwheels did he start to get more of a clue.

“They’re different from the ones we had.” Basil said as he released Sunny’s hand to pick through the container in search of one of the pinwheels he wanted. These were not one solid color like their old ones were. The pinwheels at the store had metallic coloring from the paper they used. Nevertheless, Basil still picked out one in all of their old colors. Sunny got silver, Hero’s blue, Kel’s orange, Aubrey’s pink, Basil’s green, and finally Mari’s purple. He put them all into his basket and let his eyes linger on them. “...It’s hard to find pinwheels nowadays like the ones we had. This design’s more popular. It’s kinda sad.”

Sunny didn’t respond. He picked up his pinwheel and blew on it. It spun cheerfully while reflecting the overhead lights.

“Let’s go pay for these now, okay? Then we can put them in my bag. Um, I hope they survive the trip… remind me not to let anything bend my bag.” Basil took the pinwheel back and the two walked towards the front of the store. Sunny wondered if he should take Basil’s hand again, but decided against it. Idly, he wondered what it would be like if he took any of his other friends’ hands. It was hard to picture.

Sunny stood in the magazine section and flipped through a mildly interesting one while Basil went to the checkout to pay for his items. When he was done, he returned to Sunny’s side and looked through the magazine with him. It was nice to do this, Sunny decided. He felt a lot calmer than he was before. He didn’t feel like there was darkness looming behind him anymore. He wanted to stay in this bubble for a while, so he prompted Basil to tell him about some of the new books he’d been reading. Basil gladly went on about some of his newest favorites. He’d had plenty of time to read books over the past few years, he said, and he knew for a fact there were ones that Sunny would enjoy.

Their conversation lasted up until Sunny spotted Hero back near the entrance of the store. He was alone and looking at his phone once more. He appeared to be waiting. He pointed this out to Basil, and the two walked over to their friend.

“Oh, hey, you found us.” Hero grinned at them. He pocketed his phone. “Or, I guess you found me.” 

“Where’s Kel?” Basil asked, looking around.

“He’s just outside. Aubrey messaged us that the girls wanted to put their things in the truck, so he’s meeting with them so they can do that.”

“Oh. They could use my bag…” He tapped the arm of his bag. Hero just shrugged.

“I guess they didn’t want to carry it?”

“Did you, um, get everything?”

He shook his head. “We didn’t find what we were looking for.” His smile was a bit regretful. Sunny still wasn’t sure what they were talking about. What had they discussed before they had all split up and why?

“Did you need help?” He suggested.

“Haha,” Hero patted Sunny on the shoulder once before winking at him. “Don’t worry about it, okay? Me and Kel’ll just try another time.” Sunny decided to drop it then. If Hero said it wasn’t important, it probably wasn’t.

They heard Kim’s voice as the groups gathered together once more. The sudden noise of his friends all together again helped to push back the last of the black fog that clung to the edges of Sunny senses. He was able to breathe freely again once more. They were too bright to possibly give him a moment to think and remember. He needed the break.

Kel brought the girls over and eagerly informed all of them of the items that the boys had gathered. Sunny soaked in the atmosphere of the playful banter as they once more returned to the toy section. This time Kim and Charlie joined in on Kel and Sunny setting off the toys, causing even more chaos with the sheer amount of flashing lights, tingling music, and robotic voices. Their laughter got them scolded by a nearby employee and Hero had to be the responsible adult to get all the kids in line.

“Alright, I think that’s enough money spent on beach stuff.” The man announced as he relinquished control of the shopping cart to Aubrey to push. Sunny stood on the opposite end so that she ended up pushing him around. Kel originally offered to push, but everyone predicted exactly how that would go and Hero rejected the idea. “Let’s head over to the craft supplies.”

“How many photo albums are we getting?” Kel asked.

“One for each of us.” Aubrey responded. “We’re all going to have a copy.”

“Have you guys considered, I don’t know, decorating them or whatever?” Kim suggested. Sunny blinked in surprise. He hadn’t expected that kind of idea from her.

“You mean like a, uh what’s it called, a scrapbook?” Kel asked.

“That might be fun.” Basil said.

“Yeah, like a scrapbook. If you’re gonna make them your own, you can just get a basic one and then decorate it. Or just do a scrapbook in general.” Kim said. “Charlie did one with Angel a while back, right?”

Charlie blushed a little. “...Yeah.”

“Scrapbooks might be useful, but we’re already spending a lot of money. I think if we decided to go that route, we would end up wasting a lot of money on supplies.” Hero said. He had a thoughtful look on his face, though, as he considered something. Whatever it was, he didn’t get to say it before Kel barreled on,

“They’d basically be the same thing anyway! Photo albums hold up better. I mean, just look at Basil’s! That lasted for years!”

“I don’t think five years is long in the grand scheme of things.” Aubrey rolled her eyes.

“It, uh, mostly sat on the shelf during that time too.” Basil added. “I agree that photo albums hold up better. Let’s go get those and the cameras.”

Sunny enjoyed being pushed around as he took in the store. It was so much bigger than he was used to, but not as big as the clothing store that his mother had taken him to when they had first moved to the city. Everything seemed a lot bigger since they had moved out of Faraway Town. He wondered if it was just because he was used to living in such a small place. His house had seemed far too big not that long ago too. He tried not to think about it.

The group of friends grabbed a disposable camera for each of them plus one extra. They were pretty cheap things to buy, but they predicted that they might burn through the film a lot faster than they would with Basil’s film. They all looked exactly alike as well so they ran the risk of mixing up each other’s cameras. It hardly mattered since they would be sharing pictures in the end anyway. That made Sunny excited.

His heart felt light as he considered many things he would’ve already taken pictures of. He didn’t want to forget a single moment if he could. He doubted he would be as skilled as Basil was with picking out the perfect moment to take a shot. Every little thing seemed important. He hoped that even half of his choices resonated with the others as much as he hoped that they would.

“Oh man, these photo albums are so  _ weird _ !” Kel cried as they finally came to a stop in the craft section of the store. Kim and Charlie wandered a little to look at other things since they didn’t plan to buy any albums themselves, leaving the group to decide for themselves. Kel pulled out an album that looked like it had padding and flowery cloth over it. There were even bows and frilly ribbon around the edges. “Look at this thing! It looks like something our grandma would have, Hero!”

Hero huffed in amusement. “That actually looks exactly like the material used on her pillows.”

“Exactly!”

“This one’s nice and simple.” Basil pulled out a plain pleather album. It was rectangular and longer than it was tall. Flipping it open revealed plenty of pages and a place to write the owner’s name on the inside cover.

“Eh, it’s okay.” Aubrey shrugged, disinterested. Sunny grabbed one of the smaller photo albums. It looked like each page could hold one photo each, allowing for the ability to flip through it quickly. He frowned and decided he didn’t like it. He wanted to be able to write notes in it. The idea to find an album and decorate it was looking more appealing to him.

“Oh, this one’s for Kel.” Basil had a playful smile on his face as he grabbed a basketball-shaped album and held it out.

“Oh, heck yes!” Kel snatched the album with excitement.

“How would you even put that on a shelf? It looks like it’d roll right out.” Aubrey said. Sunny grabbed another one of the simpler albums. It was a plain black one with a window on the front to allow a single picture to be the cover. It was wide enough that he was sure he could fit something nice in there. He liked it. He put his into the shopping cart.

“Yeah, but picture it!” Kel flipped the album open and pointed. “Look, it has enough room to fit one picture and I can write right below it! Besides,” he snapped it closed and looked proud of himself, “if one day maybe I decide not to play basketball anymore, I’d know immediately when I got this! It’s perfect!”

“That… was actually a lot more thoughtful than I had expected coming from you.” Aubrey seemed honestly surprised.

“Hey!”

Basil laughed quietly. “You’re right, it’s perfect.”

“I think I’m gonna get this one, then.” Hero said as he showed off a thicker album. It had rings on it like a notebook, but the pages were thick enough that they couldn’t easily tear when flipped. It caused the book to look pretty thick, though. “Reminds me of my old cookbooks.”

“I thought you just chose that because you’re a nerd.” Kel snickered and Aubrey joined in.

“I kinda thought it looked like a notebook too.”

“Aw, really?” Hero gave the album a second look.

“I like it.” Sunny assured him. “It’s big, though.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty big. But I think I’ll be saving more pictures in it then you guys, so I wanna have the most room.”

“You really think so?” Basil asked.

“Yeah! I mean, even bad photos have memories with them, right? I’m thinking about making a bit of a collage out of certain moments depending on how we do the pictures. Or maybe I can use the bad photos for something else.”

“In that case, I’ll get this.” Aubrey pulled out a pastel plaid photo album. It had a big place on it to write perhaps a title of some sort on the front. It was a medium-sized book similar to Sunny’s. “This’ll stand out.”

“It’s cute.” Basil said. “I think I like the green one.” He grabbed a forest green album then. “And… I think I want to grab some paint too. So I can decorate the front.”

“That’s a good idea!” Hero said. “Some cheap paints wouldn’t be bad.”

“You’ve become stingier with money since you moved out.” Kel pouted playfully as the group left the aisle to look for the paints. They found Charlie and Kim already there looking over some stamp sets.

“College is hard, okay? I’m lucky if I can afford to make a good meal for myself.” Hero grouched a little.

“I thought it was a time issue?”

“It’s both.” Despite his complaining, though, Hero didn’t look too distressed. “Being a little frugal is just a sign that you’re growing up.”

“I just spend all of my money pretty much right away. I’m glad there’s a lot of jobs I can do for our neighbors. Remember when Sunny was still living in town? He spent his last three days doing all kinds of odd jobs! It was pretty impressive.”

“Oh yeah, I was surprised you had so many part time jobs.” Aubrey agreed as she looked at Sunny. “Helping neighbors I guess I can get behind, but I have no idea how you did the pizza delivery. I filled in for that one time and couldn’t read any of the handwriting.”

“I’m good at puzzles.” Sunny said simply. “I have a lot of experience.”

“You do?”

“You guys done?” Kim interrupted then. “As much fun as this is, I’m itching to get some grub. I can feel my sugar high crashing!”

“Pfft, I didn’t even see you get candy! Watch out or your mom’ll see you!” Kel teased.

“Shut up, stupid! Ugh, don’t you dare tell her!”

“I’m ready to head out too. We can drop everything off at the truck and then, I don’t know-” Hero began when Aubrey cut him off to finish,

“Waste the rest of our time?”

“It’s not wasting time if we’re having fun.” Kel beamed as he leaned on the handlebar of the shopping cart. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m having a great time!”

The group glanced at each other before smiles bloomed on most of their faces. Basil and Sunny’s eyes met, and Basil’s gaze softened. He looked relieved. Sunny nodded in agreement to Kel’s words. “Me too.” He said.

“Then let’s head out! What was that thing you said yesterday, Aubrey? Something about Chinese food? Count me in! I’m  _ so _ ready to get some greasy lo mein in me!” Kel punched the air once eagerly.

“Ugh, now I’m  _ starving _ .” Kim whined. “Good going.”

“C’mon, then.” Hero encouraged as they all headed back to the front of the store to go pay for their items. Sunny felt nothing but relief and happiness as he looked at their haul. All of it spoke of the good times that were no doubt to come. He couldn’t wait to start making those memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, in the short time I've been focusing on other stuff there have been so many new Omori vids. Here's [one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeZJkxATRHA) that I genuinely like a lot and feel like it doesn't have nearly enough views.


	17. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two in one day? Wild. I just really wanted to write this chapter.

Running away was something easy for Sunny to do. It hadn’t been easy at first. He had struggled with his guilt and his selfishness. He still did to an extent, but the sharp edges of those feelings were dulled by cotton that filled his mind and blocked out everything else. First, he ran away from what he did to Mari. Then he ran away from any source of sympathy. Then he ran away from his promises, his shattered heart, his memories, and then, eventually, even reality. He ran and ran until he would trip and fall and jostle his feelings enough to feel them through the sweet cotton candy flavor of Headspace. He hid his pains away to places where he couldn’t find them, locked in a closet that didn’t exist in the reality Sunny had run to. But eventually, his tired legs could not run any longer. He’d had to make a choice. And despite the hardships, it had been worth turning around to face the monster that had nipped at his heels.

He had a recurring nightmare of his final night in Faraway Town. In that nightmare, he had never stopped running. He remembered what he had done and his heart hadn’t been able to handle it. He had not been able to forgive Basil, and so he had refused to face reality and had left his friend behind to be eaten by the monster that had hunted them both. In his dream he would wake up while it was still dark, but Aubrey, Kel, and Hero were not sleeping with him any longer. Their blankets were the only signs left of them. The darkness was made of soft white noise.

It usually took Sunny a moment to pick up the sounds of weeping from the hallway. In the hazy atmosphere of the night, he was unable to see into the darkness. He would have to approach for himself to see what the crying was about. And no matter how many times Sunny had the dream, the results were always the same. He never remembered why there was crying. His heart was numbed from the horror of his sleep and his memory recollection of what he and Basil had done. Curiosity drove him to enter that darkness and find what had happened.

The sight of Aubrey and Kel sobbing was not one he had ever wanted to see again. Especially Kel, who never cried from sorrow easily. They both only had one line for Sunny to hear as they repeated it over and over again,

_ “I’m so sorry, Basil… Please forgive me...” _

_ “Why, Basil…? Why did you do it? Sunny… Why does this keep happening to us?” _

Horror like the waters of the lake filling his lungs began to drown him, but still Sunny went on. Heavy legs moved to Hero, whose face was in his hands and turned away from where he stood on one side of Basil’s door. Polly stood on the other, pale with shock and grief. Hero barely appeared to be holding it together, if only because he felt that he had to be strong. When he looked at Sunny, his tear-filled eyes were haunted. He looked so tired. It almost reminded Sunny of the last time he had seen him shortly before Sunny had chosen to never leave his house again.

_ “Please… Sunny. You shouldn’t be seeing this.”  _ His shaking hand covered his eyes as he turned away, unable to bear facing him any longer.  _ “You’re supposed to be moving out today… On your way to a fresh new start.” _ He turned back to Sunny once more and lowered his trembling hand. He tried his best and failed to give what was probably supposed to be an encouraging face.  _ “We’ll take care of everything here. Go on ahead… We’ll be okay… I think.”  _ His voice broke at the end, and Sunny refused to look at him any longer. Instead his eyes fell on Basil’s door and what he already suspected lay beyond it. He couldn’t stop himself from looking, though. He needed to see. He needed to understand.

Something was right behind Sunny. He could feel its presence. He didn’t have to turn to see it. It watched him as he turned the knob to Basil’s room and looked inside as the door creaked open. The first thing he saw through the darkness was Something’s eye gazing back at him. Black like blood splattered against the wall and against the front of Basil’s shirt on his slumped form. Something had managed to get him and kill him. It had only been a matter of time.

The door slammed shut of its own accord as Sunny lost feeling in his hands and he backed up. His back bumped against Something. Before his eyes, Basil’s door disappeared. And suddenly, there was nothing to see. There was nothing there. He didn’t understand why his friends were grieving. He only knew that he had one thing to do, and he was no longer needed there.

He left Basil’s house, and he returned to his own. A shiny steak knife sat waiting for him on the kitchen counter. He would need that. He had to wake up from this nightmare. There was only one way to do it.

When he laid down in his bed, he pressed the edge of the knife to his stomach while the spiderweb of Something hovered above him. It was coming for him next. He was going to be eaten as well. He couldn’t run forever. But he could try.

As Something watched him, floating like a corpse in a tree and simply waiting, Sunny pressed the knife in. The sensation was almost comforting.

And he woke up on the floor. Bile pressed against his throat and he hurried from the room to the bathroom. He barely made it to the toilet before he threw up. The bile ran from his nose and blended with his sobbing as he choked on the flavor. Reality was harsh and unbearable. He hated throwing up even if that was also familiar to him. He had gotten better about eating properly, but situations like this just couldn’t be helped.

It was hard to cry like this, but it was harder not to. He let out a quiet whimper when the nausea faded and he used a tissue to wipe at his face and blow his nose. He flushed the toilet and moved to the sink to clean his face and mouth. He was too scared to look at the mirror.

It had been easier before he allowed himself to feel again. The only thing that had broken through the thick, oppressing numbness had been the sharp knife of fear. Everything else had been gone and Sunny had had nothing left. There were days he still wished that he felt like that because everything else felt like it was far too strong for his fragile heart. 

He wiped his face off and left the bathroom. He had almost made it back to his bedroom when the soft keys of a piano tinkled in the night air. He paused and glanced at the gloom downstairs. The piano music was so gentle. It was almost enough that Sunny could sleep to it, but he wasn’t so sure he was going to get rest anytime soon. He risked stepping down the stairs. When nothing attacked him, he felt more confident in walking just a little bit faster. His eyes were already on the entryway leading into the piano room. 

Mari and her piano were at work when Sunny stepped past the door frame. The grass that was in the room was soft against his feet and the moonlight seemed to sparkle as it reflected off of the shiny wood of the piano from the large window. Mari was playing just like she always was. She was wearing pajamas today, as if the night was too busy for her to sleep as well and she felt the urge to spend her energy on something better. Sunny stood there and watched her silently. Her eyes were closed and peaceful with a smile on her face. She was content with the music she was making.

He wasn’t sure if she even knew he was there. His fingers twitched as if he was holding his violin. He closed his eyes as well and felt the weight of it as he got into position to play. When he moved the bow, though, no music played. He was fine with that. He would rather his playing not interrupt hers. He had no idea what the song was anyway and he was only guessing the notes.

“It’s a shame you can’t play with me anymore, even if I understand why.” Mari said with a wistful tone. He opened his eyes and saw her looking at him from the corner of her own eye before her hair fell to block her expression. “I’ve always liked your playing. It wasn’t perfect, but I kinda really liked it for that. I’m sorry I couldn’t realize that in time.”

Sunny didn’t want her apologies. He didn’t want to think about it. Mari didn’t say anymore and continued playing. Sunny lowered his arms and watched her. He memorized the gentle swaying of her shoulders and torso as her hands moved. Her bare feet shifted on the pedals. Even the crickets were silent as they listened to the gentle music. It was enough that Sunny felt his battered heart regain some of the health it had lost.

A hand touched his shoulder then. Sunny jolted and jumped away as the music cut off and he spun around. Hero stood there, eyes a little wide at Sunny’s reaction. He was dressed in pajamas as well, though he looked nothing like Headspace Hero. Too old. He was wearing shorts and a tank top as well. His hair was still messy, though.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. I wasn’t sure what you were doing out here.” Hero’s face was apologetic. It was a better expression than the last face Sunny had seen him with. The chirping of crickets filled the void that Mari’s piano had left. It suddenly occurred to Sunny that he wasn’t in the piano room of his house. The grass he was standing on was the backyard of Hero and Kel’s house. He wasn’t even in his own house. He hadn’t realized.

He didn’t answer Hero as he looked around himself instead. Hero watched him before he understood Sunny wasn’t going to say anything. So he explained, “I, uh, saw you from the open window. You were just standing out here looking at your old house. Are you... “ He didn’t look like he knew what to say.

Despite the summer air, Sunny felt a little chilly. The grass was damp with dew. The sky was just a bit brighter than it would be in the deepest of nights. Dawn was on its way. “...I had a nightmare.” He said then quietly. “And I thought I heard piano music.” He looked back towards his old house once more. Was this what it was like for Hero and Kel when Mari would practice? Could they really hear her that well?

“Ah… you too?” His eyes jumped to Hero, who smiled a little sadly. “That’s, um, what woke me up. I had thought I heard piano music too. It… I had thought for a moment…” He didn’t need to finish. “Then I saw you.”

It was moments like these that made Sunny think that Mari was still around. Hero could hear her too. His heart was connected to hers as well.

“C’mon over here. It’s not really safe to walk barefoot back here. Kel doesn’t always clean up after Hector.” He motioned with his hand and walked to the back porch to sit at the deck tables there. He had been smart enough to wear slippers. Sunny followed after him and checked his feet to make sure there was only dirt there when he sat down. He had been lucky. The two sat in peaceful quiet for a few moments as they absorbed the undisturbed night air. Sunny could feel the weight of being one of the only two people awake. It felt like they were the only ones in the world.

“Do you have nightmares a lot?” Hero finally asked after a few minutes. Sunny’s eyes drifted back to him. Hero’s expression was hard to read in the shadows where the moon couldn’t touch.

“Sometimes.” Sunny confessed. “Sometimes… it’s hard to tell what’s a nightmare and what’s not.”

“What do you mean?” Everything about Hero’s tone said that his questions were always optional for Sunny to answer. He chose to answer them anyway. The secrecy of the night infected him once more. Hero was, perhaps, the only one of his friends outside of Basil who could understand.

“Everyday I felt like I was suffocating in that house.” Sunny’s hands moved on each other, warming them even though they weren’t actually cold. “Waking up felt like more of a nightmare than being asleep. But when I was asleep, I also had nightmares sometimes. It became… hard for me to tell the difference.”

Hero was struck silent. He swallowed audibly. “O... Oh.”

Sunny decided to rescue him from the conversation he knew that neither of them wanted to have then. Instead he chose a harder topic. “I’m better.” He assured him. “I just… I have a recurring nightmare. One that… isn’t what you think it is.”

“Me too.” Hero confessed, folding his arms across the table. “Do you want to talk about it? I know it’s hard… but I’m here for you.”

Sunny wanted to be there for Hero as well. He could be sacrificial at times. That was why Sunny was careful. Hero wasn’t fragile in the least, but he deserved better than what Sunny could give him. “I dream about that night at Basil’s house. What do you know about what happened that day?” He’d never really asked. He had gathered some information from his friends, but he and Basil had never told them directly what it had been about.

Hero took a breath and released it. He seemed steadier and calmer. He was back to being that strong older brother figure that Sunny had always seen him as. “We know that you and Basil got into a fight while we were asleep. And obviously it was bad. I… Well, I have suspicions about why you fought, but they don’t seem completely accurate with all the clues that were there.” Sunny waited for him to continue. “You were trying to stop him… from killing himself, right?” Hero’s expression became pained. “I mean… we all suspected it. That’s why I thought we should stay. I didn’t ever want to… to  _ think _ that Basil would do something like that… but, well, it was clear he was struggling.  _ Was _ that what happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Sunny admitted, but his tone said enough to his agreement. He had assumed that Basil was going to kill himself that night as well. The signs of Something catching up to him was too great. His breakdowns and the hollow look in his eyes reminded Sunny of his own reflection. And Sunny had thought about committing suicide more times than he could count. “I don’t really remember why I went in there. I… didn’t have a plan. I just wanted to talk to him. But it all became too much, and I couldn’t run away.”

Hero frowned. “What do you mean?”

Sunny’s hands were sweaty. He rubbed them on his shorts. “I don’t know.” He hedged instead of answering. “What happened that night… It had been another nightmare. I’m not sure how much of it was real.” Hero was silent in response. Sunny pressed on, “My recurring nightmare is of that night, but I didn’t confront Basil. And he died. And I… I just want to wake up afterwards. So I would… I…” he didn’t finish. He was unable to confess his sin.

“Thank goodness it’s only a nightmare, then.” Hero said. He reached for Sunny’s hand and grabbed it. Sunny startled at his touch. He hadn’t held hands with Hero since they were little. The other man’s eyes were sincere and heartfelt as he gazed at his friend. “As long as you know it’s just a dream. Basil’s here and he’s happy again. You’re both safe.”

Sunny swallowed thickly. “Y...yeah.”

Hero released him and sighed. “That sounds horrifying. My nightmares… they’re not usually like that. But… I did have a dream once that I think shook me more than anything else. Will you hear me out?” Why did that sound so ominous? Sunny nodded. It was his turn to support his friend. “Don’t take me the wrong way, okay? Please. I can’t control what I dream about.” Did he kill Sunny in his dreams, perhaps? That was fine. It was the least he could do for his friends, dying for them in their dreams. “I dreamt that I let you drown. You and Basil both. I… I had known you were both in there, but I just… I didn’t want to jump in.” He brought hand to his mouth and wiped it as if he could wipe the words clean. “I didn’t want to save you. I’m so sorry. It’s… I still can’t believe that I…”

“It’s okay.” Sunny said.

“No, it’s not! It’s…!”

“It is.” Sunny insisted. “I understand. I… I really do.”

Hero looked sick. “...Sunny, um… Do you… Like Basil, did you want to…?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer that, so he kept it simple, “All the time.” Then, quieter and with the weight of it all pressing on him, “All the time.”

“Don’t.” Hero pleaded then. “I… Trust me, I  _ know _ how hard it is. But please, don’t ever do it. Talk to one of us first. Any of us.” His voice choked up a little. “I don’t want to lose you too.”

Tears sprang to Sunny’s eye at his words. He wiped them away. “I will.” He swore. “I’m better now.”

“If ever you need me, I’ll come to your house right away. Any time, okay? Day or night.” Sunny wasn’t sure he could ever be so selfish as to ask that, but he wasn’t one to deny the offer. So he nodded. This time he was the one to hesitantly reach out his hand. But Hero didn’t just take his hand. He stood up and pulled Sunny into a hug and held him a little too tightly. Sunny closed his eyes and pressed his face to his friend’s chest and hugged him back. Hero sniffed over him but didn’t seem to be crying. He pressed a hand to the back of Sunny’s head and simply held him.

A few moments passed like that. His hand trailed from Sunny’s hair and down to his shoulder as they pulled away. He wiped at his own eyes and gave a huff of a laugh. “I’m glad I could finally talk to you about this. I’ve been worrying about it for a long time. I just didn’t expect it to go like this.”

Sunny nodded in agreement.

“I know that it’s gotta be hard talking about all of this. I know it’s not easy for any of us either. But I hope that it helps you and Basil both. They say that times of hardship have a way of bringing people together.” He smiled a little before his eyes drifted back to Sunny’s old house. His gaze became nostalgic and sad once more, “...I still think of her all the time. And I know you must as well. I’m not really a believer of ghosts or anything, but I can feel her spirit sometimes.” His hand released Sunny and pressed to his own chest. “It feels warm, just like her.”

“Me too.” Sunny whispered. He saw her just in the kitchen window watching them like she had done countless times before. She was smiling. And then she was gone again. 

Hero’s eyes followed Sunny’s gaze, but didn’t see anything. His hand moved to rub at his neck before he sighed. “...We should get some sleep. It’s late. Or, uh, early. If you can’t fall back asleep, then you can just nap during the day. There’s nothing wrong with having a lazy summer day once in a while, haha!”

Sunny gave Hero a soft smile which Hero returned two-fold. No more words were said between them as they went back inside and hoped to get some more sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For today's suggestion I have two shorter ones. [This one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqJ2M1PQhug) feels a little more tonally correct with this chapter, but [this other one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxW5MEOL3Q) is just one I love very, very much and I didn't want to wait to put it on the next Headspace chapter.


	18. Five Days Left

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love seeing the feedback this story is getting! I genuinely hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I like writing it. I'll continue to work hard!

He didn’t really know how he got there, but Sunny dreamed that he tried to dip his toes into the Inky Ocean only to fall in instead. The waves wrapped him up and his weight was pulled inexplicably down. His presence barely left a ripple on the surface. Nobody would be able to find him as he sank deeper and deeper. He dreamt of technicolor waterscapes that sparkled and burned across the black expanse like colonies of ants. It reminded him of when he would press his hands too hard against his closed eyes to make the colors bloom there. He was weightless and yet too heavy. He was mesmerized by just how far the darkness stretched out. He wondered if he would ever sink to the bottom and was scared to find out.

Then he began to float upwards, though he had no way of telling what was truly up or down. His body floated and he rose until his eyes opened to the sight of bright sunlight streaming in through the open window. The fan churned above him, moving the too-warm air enough to circulate it but not to cool him. Outside, there was a lawnmower going and birds were chirping. Sunny was suddenly unsure if he had slept at all or if he had only dozed. Did he even wake up in the middle of the night? Or had that been a dream as well? He didn’t know.

What time was it? He rubbed the sleep from his eye as he moved mechanically through his morning routine. He really didn’t want to, but he knew that he needed to. He wanted to go back to sleep again. Fatigue still dragged at his bones. He probably didn’t sleep at all. Hero and Kel’s beds were empty and made up. He wondered if Hero had made Kel’s bed or if Kel actually did it. He hadn’t noticed before.

He felt like he was in a bit of a haze of thought as his body moved on instinct to wash up, brush his teeth, and carefully put his eye in place. Considering how gross his mouth tasted, he had a feeling that last night really had occurred. In the bright daylight of the morning last night’s events felt even more like a dream. He looked… not great as he gazed at himself in the mirror. Familiar bags under his eyes seemed darker. He knew that rather than from lack of sleep, his expression came from his emotional state. It wasn’t as bad as it could be. In fact, he felt like he was in a better place than he had been before. Talking about those things with Hero last night had hurt him, but it had hurt in a way that would help to facilitate healing. That’s what he wanted to believe, anyway. The worst was still to come. He could do this.

He walked downstairs and kept an eye out for his friends. The sunlight was quite bright. He had a feeling he had slept in late. He was proven correct when he found Hero and Kel in the dining room with their sister Sally playing with her toys in Hero’s lap. They were both fully dressed and ready for the day.

“Good morning!” Hero greeted cheerfully. He looked a little tired as well, Sunny thought, but he was better at hiding it.

“Morning…” Kel groaned in stark contrast to Hero. He was hunched over a couple of notebooks with his hand buried in his loose hair. His face was screwed up with concentration and pain. It was a familiar expression on his face. “Argh, this isn’t fair! Why does Sunny get to sleep in while I have to do homework?!”

“Kel, you’re already halfway into summer vacation. You need to do your homework before school starts again. You might as well do it now.” Hero said in a tone that told Sunny he had already explained this once.

“Yeah!” Sally cried, hitting her small stuffed doll on the table excitedly. Hero bounced her in his lap as she giggled.

Kel slumped on the table, lip jutting out in a pout. Then he turned his head to its side to look at Sunny, “Sunny, tell him to let me go! You’re only in town for a little while! I don’t want to do homework!”

Sunny felt for him, he really did. “Are we doing anything today?” He asked, hoping to prompt some ideas.

“Sorry, Sunny.” Hero said. “Mom and Dad are both working, so we’re babysitting today. They’ll be back this evening and then we can do something if you want to go out together later.” He leaned back in his chair and helped Sally stand on his legs when the girl clearly wanted to stand. She shook her diaper butt excitedly, bouncing some. Hero wrapped his arm around her waist to support her. “I figured we can have the lazy day I mentioned before. You were sleeping like a log and Kel has to finish his homework anyway. What do you think?”

That was fine with him. He didn’t mind lazing around the house at all. Kel protested, though, “Noooo! I don’t want to be stuck inside! C’mon, we can do something else!”

“If you finish your homework, then you won’t have to do it later with Mom getting on your case.”

“It’s not _difficult_!”

“Then there’s no problem doing it now.”

Sunny decided to leave the brothers to bicker with each other and headed into the kitchen in search of food. Hearing their argument made his heart warm. In the past, Hero had been a lot more lenient about making Kel do anything he didn’t want to. That was the main reason why Kel’s grades had slipped. It appeared that Hero was going to be stubborn at least about this. It looked like he had learned to say no to his brother. Sunny also had a feeling that Kel wasn’t as bothered by it as he liked to pretend.

He found some cold waffles and bacon in the microwave with some tin foil over them. He removed the foil and heated the food up while he thought about what he wanted to do. He could just go back to sleep, but he didn’t really want to. He could easily have adventures with his real friends right now and didn’t want to waste it by dreaming. Besides, he wasn’t completely sure he could enter Headspace at the moment. He wasn’t sure if last night was a real dream he had in Headspace or if it was a normal dream. The line was pretty blurry. So for now he would leave it. He was sure things were fine there anyway. He never had to really worry about it any longer.

That actually made him remember that he hadn’t really called his mother back yet. He left his microwaved food to finish heating and went back upstairs to grab his phone and his camera before he forgot that as well. He changed clothes by just putting on some shorts and slipping on a thin zip-up sleeveless vest. He pulled on some socks too so he was ready to go out should he choose to do so. He then closed the window to the boys’ room that he had a feeling Kel had left open. His parents would probably be annoyed about that and wasting electricity. He went back downstairs.

He brought his food over to the table to sit with the brothers as Hero assisted Kel with his homework and made some casual conversation with Sunny while he ate. Sunny liked just spending time like this too. He didn’t need to be doing really anything to have a good time with his friends. It reminded him of lazy Sunday mornings spent watching cartoons before violin practice and then evenings of the younger kids binging their homework that would be due on Monday morning. There had been a lot of copying each other’s notes and work involved and it had been done mostly out of earshot of Hero and Mari who would scold them. It was a lavender-tinted memory filled with the flavors of too-bland tea and pleasantly sweet banana bread.

He decided he wanted to capture this feeling and snapped a picture of Sally and Hero both leaning over to point at Kel’s homework while Kel continued to look frustrated but still determined. It caught the boys’ attention as Sunny lowered the camera and wound the film.

“Oh right!” Kel cried. “I had forgotten about the cameras! Haha, what were you even taking a picture of?”

Sunny didn’t respond and pocketed the camera once more, pleased. He thought that one would turn out well. Basil would like it, he thought.

“Looks like Sunny got to snag the prize of being the first picture.” Hero laughed as he stopped Sally from crawling on the table. The girl was getting antsy, so he put her down. There was a toy box in the corner for her to explore.

“Nah, that still goes to Basil. I’m counting the ones from the playground, after all!”

“Oh right, that’s true. Alright, the first picture on our new cameras.” Sunny was proud to be the first. “Did you have any homework you need to work on too, Sunny? I can help you out with it while we’re here.”

Sunny shook his head. He had work he had to do, but he had already done everything he needed to cover for this week. He hadn’t wanted anything to ruin their fun. Now he kind of regretted it because it would’ve helped to have Hero tutoring him and Kel by his side to struggle.

“I know Aubrey does! Let’s drag her over here to suffer with me! Basil too! We have different classes, but all of our core classes are pretty much the same!” Kel demanded.

“How about it then? Do you want to go pick Aubrey and Basil up?” Hero asked Sunny.

“I’m coming too!”

“No, Kel. Just focus.”

“Ugh!” 

Sunny shrugged and nodded. He didn’t mind going to pick up their friends. 

“Can’t we just message them?” Kel asked. 

“Hmm, that’s true too.”

“Besides, Sunny doesn’t like being alone.” He looked towards his friend. “Right?”

That was still true. Sunny didn’t like traveling alone. The thought of walking around alone when his friends were here only added to that. Whenever he was alone, only bad things happened. However, he was older and he had more experience traveling alone. Aubrey and Basil weren’t that far. A few minutes would be fine.

“I’ll be okay.” He said. The betrayal on Kel’s face was honestly pretty funny. Hero hiding his snickers behind his hand only added to it. Sunny grabbed his empty plate and silverware to bring over to the sink. He didn’t really want to wash it, though. He hated doing dishes.

“I’ll take care of the dishes, Sunny!” Hero called after him as if he could read his mind. Or maybe he just remembered Sunny’s dislike of dishwashing. Hero and Mari had always done it for Sunny. He didn’t mind helping to dry and put the dishes away, though, as long as he had helpers.

“Then I’ll go now.” He said to them. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

“See you later!”

“Take me with you!” Kel cried, but Sunny ignored his friend’s plight to put his shoes on and leave the house. The summer air was sticky again. He pulled a face and thought about how he should probably put on more sunscreen, but he wasn’t even sure he was going to be outside that long. He figured he could risk it as he pulled out his phone to give his mother a quick phone call as he headed for Aubrey’s house.

He wasn’t on the phone with his mother long. Their phone calls rarely lasted longer than five minutes if there wasn’t much to talk about, and Sunny would fill her in on anything important when he got home. He knew that she understood that. She had more important things to do, and Sunny preferred to get on with his day as well. She thanked him for checking in with her. His conversation was over with her by the time he reached Aubrey’s house. He found the girl by her bike, getting ready to go somewhere herself.

“Oh. Hey, Sunny.” She said. Sunny waved to her and looked at her bike. “Sorry, I know you’re only here for a little while, but I have some stuff I gotta do today. We can hang out later.” She paused and then added, “Is that okay?”

He nodded, feeling a little disappointed. He decided to tell her anyway, “Hero is forcing Kel to do his homework right now.”

“Is he? That’s hilarious. I actually had a bet going with my friends on whether or not Kel would actually finish the summer homework before school started. Guess I won that one.” She kicked the kickstand up and walked the bike to the sidewalk with Sunny. “If I could, I’d come over. Hero’s always been really good about tutoring. Sorry again.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s weird to see you alone.” It was hard to read her expression. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He looked to the side.

“Liar.” She sighed through her nose and then punched his shoulder once softly. “I’ll see you later. We can mess with Kel about being bullied into actually doing schoolwork.” She straddled her bike, but didn’t immediately pedal off. She looked back at him once more with a less-guarded expression as she frowned. Then she gave him a reassuring smile, “It’s kinda nice knowing that when I get done with my stuff I can go to hang out with you all again. It’s pretty nostalgic. It’s good to have you back, Sunny. Really.” She seemed embarrassed by her confession then and cleared her throat. “Anyway, see you later.” She took off down the street then as Sunny watched her go. He felt his cheeks warm a little. He felt the same way as her, after all. 

Okay, Basil’s house now. He turned and made his way to the other boy’s house. The possibility of Basil having not done his summer homework already was unlikely. He had always been the most responsible of the younger kids. Sunny had always had to be prodded into doing his homework alongside Mari. He never liked to choose to do it first unless he was using it as an excuse to get Mari to make time for him among her busy schedule. Later on it was typically him and Basil doing their homework together instead. Aubrey had liked to pretend that she was responsible with keeping up with her homework, but as soon as she wasn’t thinking about it she usually forgot about it until the last minute like Kel did.

Polly was the one to answer the door when he knocked. She looked pretty with her hair tied in a loose ponytail. “Hello, Sunny! Here for Basil again?” She smiled like she was holding back a secret shared between them. Sunny nodded. “Come on in out of the heat, then. He should be in his bedroom.”

He stepped past the door frame and made his way to Basil’s room. He pointedly ignored the sickening drag of his memories and nightmares as he knocked on the door to Basil’s room rather than simply open it like he had in the past. When Basil opened the door, Sunny was stunned by just how different it looked.

Just like Kel had said, Basil’s room looked almost like a forest. He had completely new wallpaper that made it seem like there were vines that decorated every surface. He had at least three new shelves with all kinds of herbs and flowering plants. There were a couple of potted trees as well that looked like they were too young to put outside. In between all of it were Basil’s usual furniture with his desk, bookshelves, and bed. Everything had been rearranged since the last time Sunny had been there. He was amazed by it all.

“Hi.” Basil greeted as Sunny made no notion of hiding his wonder as he took it all in. “Hehe, it looks a lot different, huh?”

He could only nod.

“It’s a bit much, I think. But, um, after the hospital visit my parents wanted to give me a bunch of presents to lift my spirits. They… well, I think they only know that I like plants. So here I am.”

“That happened to me too.” Sunny informed him. “I got a lot of flowers.” Almost everyone in the neighborhood had given Sunny a get-well present after they had heard he had been hospitalized. Most of the plants died because Sunny just had no idea how to care for them properly, but he still had a couple of them at his house that had survived with Basil’s tips. Also, the cactus was extremely hard to kill on accident. 

Basil laughed a little. “I remember.” They both took a moment to look at the room before he asked, “Um, are Hero or Kel with you?”

He shook his head.

“Oh!” His surprise was clear.

“Hero is forcing Kel to do homework. Did you want to come?”

“Really? I had thought for sure Kel would completely forget… I guess Aubrey wins this time.” He sighed good-naturedly. “Sure! I’ll come over. I don’t really have any homework to do, though. Um… did we have any plans today?”

Sunny shook his head. Actually, looking at these plants reminded him, “Did you want help in your garden?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. But it’s already hot out. How about tomorrow morning?” Sunny nodded. That was fine by him. “So it’s a lazy day?” He asked as he grabbed a messenger bag and placed both his camera and his disposable camera as well as his wallet into it.

“Maybe.” Sunny thought about it as the two of them left the room. “I was… thinking about making some money.” He had admittedly spent a lot already and he wasn’t even halfway through his vacation with his friends. He had anticipated this, though. “Did you want to help?”

“Oh… sure. I don’t know how good I’ll be, though.” He rubbed his arm nervously. It would be good experience for them both. They could split the money, maybe, and Sunny hadn’t gotten to hang out with Basil during his last days in town. The shopping trip was also somewhat of a disaster. He just wanted to hang out with one of his old best friends.

“It’ll be fun.” He assured him even while knowing that it would definitely be a chore. The thought of hitting those irritating flies was already aggravating him. But he was still going to do it anyway if he could.

“Right.” Basil agreed, still looking unsure. His expression cleared just a little bit anyway. “It’s been a while since it was just the two of us… let’s make it an adventure, okay?”

Sunny nodded, already looking forward to it. Burdensome jobs didn’t seem as bad when he had a friend helping him do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's my [video rec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrSXp6h4JJM) for this chapter. ^^ Please go show Omori animatic content creators some love too!


	19. Basil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short one this time.

Instead of returning to Kel’s house, Basil simply texted them that he and Sunny would be hanging out around town. They both agreed that if they met up with the boys again that Kel would most likely try to escape with them. For the sake of saving Hero from Kel’s imminent escape when he had to take care of their sister, they just went off on their own. It was a fun decision. Talking with Basil was easy. Basil wasn’t too much of a chatterbox, but he was easy to make conversation with. He usually had something to talk about that wasn’t too heavy. As they went around town to gather trash for the recycling lady at the park, Sunny was told of the different things that Basil had been up to.

He had been going to therapy a lot. It had been mandatory for him after he had been institutionalized. He had hated being in the institution, but he explained to Sunny that it had been something he was kind of relieved to do. He hadn’t realized just how bad off he was until he’d had his breakdown, and his guilt had driven him to try his hardest to get better. His therapist in particular was really nice, though Basil had yet to tell her the root of his issues. She had pushed a couple of times, but he had refused to tell her.

Sunny was the same way. He knew that there wasn’t really a way he could get better until he faced it all head on and had guidance from someone who could properly help him, but it just didn’t feel right. He and Basil were in agreement that first and foremost the people who should hear the entire truth should be their friends. Their therapists could come afterwards.

“Do your parents know?” Basil asked a little more casually than his face expressed as he hauled the trash bag over his shoulder.

Sunny shook his head. “No.” He didn’t plan to tell them either. His mother wasn’t fully healed, but her heart had already scarred over. His father was no longer in the picture other than to pay for child support. Telling the truth would break up what little bit of family Sunny had left.

Basil didn’t tell him that he should. He just continued on with his own story. Kel and Aubrey had come to visit him in the institution where Aubrey had proceeded to give a proper apology. It had been very tearful all around. Sunny still remembered Kel telling him about that. Basil had forgiven the girl then and there.

“I didn’t blame her.” He explained as they turned in their trash to the recycling lady. There were a couple of cats about. Sunny decided they would go to get plenty of fish to go around town and feed some of the cats they came across. “I knew she didn’t know the truth but… I guess I kind of wanted her to punish me. I’d rather her be mad at me than at you.”

Sunny shook his head. “You shouldn’t have.” He didn’t deserve to be placed on the pedestal that Basil had put him on. He had been a terrible friend, and a horrible person all around.

“I know. I just wanted to help you.” Basil admitted quietly. Sunny felt ill thinking about it. So Basil went on, pushing past that.

Things became more normal for him. He and Sunny had been in contact and talked every now and again, after all, and at school Basil was brought with Kel to meet many of his friends. Basil was friendly with them, at least, and felt at least not totally awkward around Aubrey’s friends. It had taken some adjustment and some harsh admonishing from Aubrey before they had stopped pushing Basil around. The sudden change wasn’t lost on them. Basil wasn’t completely sure how to act around them anymore. He didn’t see himself as having a friend group anymore, but he was happier now. Kel went out of his way multiple times to make sure he and Aubrey went to visit Basil.

“He told me that he didn’t want to make the same mistakes he did all those years ago.” He said as the boys bought the fish with the money they earned from picking up trash. They also bought an ice cream cone each after they had properly washed their hands. Sunny’s was mint chocolate chip. Basil’s was strawberry. It felt very earned. They were both sweaty and from the sun. They took their treats to go hang out in their secret spot. Sunny hoped they made it before they started melting. “I’m, um, really grateful for it. Honestly! But I feel kind of bad that Kel has to go out of his way for me.”

“He wouldn’t if he didn’t want to.” Sunny assured him. Kel had always been that type of guy. He genuinely wanted to help anyone that he came across and encouraged those he interacted with. Sunny still had the sketch from the budding artist he and Kel had met during those last days of Sunny being in town. That was proof enough for him. “He called my house every week leading up to us moving when he found out.”

“Did he really? That… That sounds like him.” Basil fell silent. They made their way through the underbrush that had become overgrown from lack of people traveling through it. That didn’t mean the old path that had been there since they were kids wasn’t still there though. It took a little more effort to get to now since it was a little overgrown, but that just made it all the more exciting when they arrived. It hadn’t changed very much at all since the last time Sunny had been there. They took a seat in the grass under the shade of a tree and began to eat their ice cream.

So much had happened in this place that it felt almost surreal to be back there. The water no longer seemed threatening to him. The statue that stood in the middle of the lake seemed smaller than ever. The picnic blanket that had been there last time was gone, but the colorful pinwheels were still on the other side of the lake. Sunny gazed at them wistfully, thinking back to when he and his friends had planted them there as a way to mark the area as their secret base.

“...Sunny,” Basil’s voice sounded distant even though he was right next to Sunny. His eyes were a little dark and sad, “I don’t really want to ruin our good day but… I know I probably won’t have another chance to ask you. I don’t think we’ll really have any time alone after this, and I don’t really want to talk about it around the others.” He pulled his knees in a little. His ice cream was slowly melting. He didn’t notice right away. Sunny only waited. Their eyes met. “Why did you break our promise? Was it because… you hated me?” His eyes dropped. “I don’t blame you if that’s the truth. I just… I thought we would be there for each other. But you just… you just disappeared on me. And you were just going to leave town without ever telling me. If Kel had never brought you over that day, I would’ve never known until it was far too late, right?”

This might as well happen to him. Sunny wasn’t quite sure what he had expected when he was finally alone with Basil. And he knew his friend was right too. He could tell that the others were a little hesitant to leave them alone together. Yesterday must have been a test of sorts. Luckily, they had passed. After this he was sure that they would always have someone else around them. And Sunny was actually somewhat grateful that Basil had brought it up no matter how painful it was. This wasn’t something he wanted to talk around anyone else either. Just like before, this was between them.

“You were in denial about what I did.” Sunny said as he watched his ice cream melt across his hand. He didn’t lick it up right away and instead just watched it. “And I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand myself. I wanted to forget everything, but I couldn’t do that around you.” Basil’s eyes never left him. “I hated myself. And I hated you too. I hated everything that had happened. If I was going to forget, I needed to forget you too. So I did.”

Basil flinched. Sunny could see the way his face became pained. “I… I see. Sunny, I-”

“Don’t apologize.” Sunny hurried to say. He didn’t want to hear it.

“ _ Please _ .” He begged instead. His hand grabbed the side of Sunny’s shirt. He was shaking a little. “Please let me apologize. I need to.” Sunny finally looked at him. Tears were in the boy’s eyes, but he didn’t cry yet. He looked heartbroken, but determined. “I’m so sorry. All I ever wanted to do was help you, but it seemed like everything I did made everything worse. Even on that day… I just wanted to help.” He shook his head. “We were just kids. I could see you pulling away that day. You’ve always… You always had the same look on your face when you were lost in your head. But I was terrified that day that you would never come back. Even when I saw you again last year… I could tell you never fully did. I just made everything worse. And I’m sorry for that, Sunny. I wasn’t there for you in the way that you had needed me because I couldn’t… I couldn’t accept what you had done. What we both did.”

Sunny’s heart felt hollow. His friend’s words felt like nothing to him. He knew this feeling. He tried not to dissociate from his own emotions again. He had to understand and process this. What was he even feeling? It was far too much for him. His mouth moved without his mind really choosing to speak,

“I know you wanted to help. I don’t think there was anything you could have done that would’ve helped me, though. I had… Mari, she…” he pressed his hand to his eye hard enough to see colors again. It was worse than in his dream. His hand was cold from his ice cream. “I blamed you for part of what happened. Even when I locked myself away, I couldn’t fully forget you. But the sight of you hurt too much as well. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t deal with myself. I didn’t want to exist in this world anymore.”

Basil’s hand did not let go of his shirt. Sunny gave himself a minute to simply be overwhelmed before he practiced trying to calm down and steady his emotions. He breathed, held his breath, and let it out slowly. Then he did it again. He did it until he had better control over his thoughts and the chaos in his heart. And then he lowered his hand to blink past the tears and gaze into Basil’s wet eyes. He reached out and held Basil’s shirt in return. “I’m sorry too, Basil. For everything I did to you. And for being selfish. Please… please forgive me.”

“I already have!” Basil dropped his ice cream and threw himself at Sunny to squeeze him tightly. “You’re my best friend.” He whispered through the broken sobs that escaped him. “All I wanted was to be with you again.”

Sunny hesitated before his own arm came up to cling to Basil as well. He finally felt a bit of peace that he hadn’t expected to ever get. Part of him had assumed that Basil would forgive him, but he had never fully believed it. He didn’t feel like he deserved it, but he had felt vindictive in his own self-hatred. If he wasn’t deserving of forgiveness, then Basil didn’t either.

But he didn’t want to listen to that wretched little voice. Mari wanted him to forgive himself. And Sunny wanted to forgive Basil. And he had quietly, desperately hoped that Basil would forgive him for hurting him the way he had. The terrible secret they had shared was both of their burdens. He finally felt like he had someone back on his side. He had one of his friends really back. Putting his faith in them hadn’t been for naught. He could only imagine the relief he would feel if… when his other friends finally knew everything.

He cried as well, gritting his teeth to bite back his whimpers, but most of his tears were those of salvation than of penitence at last. He didn’t want to let go of Basil. They could stay a little bit longer, he figured. They had all the time in the world for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the comments from the last chapter to find a couple of good video recs :)


	20. Growing Up

The ice cream was a minor loss that Sunny and Basil barely lamented when all was said and done. Their hands and faces were messy. Considering most of the ice cream was melted or had fallen, they just tossed the scraps into the grass for the bugs and animals to eat. They walked over to the pond and rinsed their hands off.

As they were wiping their faces clean of tears, Basil said, “I… I don’t know if I ever properly apologized for what I did to you either. During our fight, I mean.” Sunny paused and glanced at him. Basil just splashed his face once more and shook the water from it. “Does it still hurt? The other day when you fell, your eye…”

“It doesn’t hurt.” Sunny said. “I just…” He decided to show him. He dried his hands on his shorts before lifting his eye patch away. His prosthetic wasn’t the final perfect one, so it looked awkward on his face. Basil didn’t flinch at the sight, but he did reach out to touch the scar on his cheekbone. “I wasn’t wearing this that day. Some sand got in.”

“Oh no! That sounds… Oh, that sounds horrible.”

“Hero helped me. It was okay.” He covered the eye once more with the patch.

“I still can’t believe I took your eye from you…” He sounded choked up all over again. Sunny just patted his back and stood up. What was done, was done. He didn’t have any regrets during that fight. He didn’t remember a lot of it anyway because of just how… strange it was. “Are you going to always wear a patch?”

“Looks cool.” He said simply as he brushed the dirt from his knees and started to leave their secret area. Basil chased after him to follow.

“It… It does!” He agreed with a tentative smile. Sunny felt like that was resolved.

They went around the neighborhood and helped out with some of the neighbors. Sunny met up again with adults and kids alike that he had become friendly with in the short time that he had been around to help. It was nice interacting with so many different personalities, and Basil was forced to get out of his shell a little more as he took up most of the conversation since Sunny couldn’t. They met up with Joy and her father once more and helped the little girl out with her own summer homework, earning them some money. Sunny also got a note from the Guitar Guy that had been delivered to his old house since he hadn’t known Sunny had moved or what his new address would be. Inside the letter was a copy of a song that Sunny had actually heard a couple of times on television. It sounded like the guy was doing well for himself.

Eventually the two retreated back to Faraway Plaza and took some part-time jobs, splitting up in order to do them themselves. Considering Sunny didn’t like insects and Basil didn’t mind them, he took the job of swatting insects for the fish lady while Sunny took to cleaning the hardware store up. He had gotten pretty good at doing that in the short time he had been around to help. Unsurprisingly, the Fix-It employee still looked too tired and lazy to do it himself. If it made him $30, then he was going to do it. 

They did the pizza delivery job together when they stopped by to grab just a slice of pizza each to sate their appetites. Sunny was surprised at how, well, absent the pizza delivery boy was. But this one was one of the more entertaining jobs to do around town, and with Basil’s help reading the notes it was no problem at all. It was easy money that the two of them split before they sat down to eat their well-earned pizza slices.

“I’m exhausted.” Basil said as they finally left Faraway Plaza and started their way back to Kel’s house. It was getting kinda late. Evening would be upon them soon. Sunny hadn’t realized just how long they had been working and doing chores. “Kel told me that you guys spent most of your last few days doing this kind of stuff, but I’m pretty surprised you wanted to.” He looked at Sunny curiously. “What, um, what brought it upon you to do all of that?”

Sunny wasn’t exactly sure. He had locked himself away for years. He supposed that he was just used to exploring and meeting people because of Headspace. It came naturally to him, and he and Kel had had to find some way to spend their time after they weren’t chasing Aubrey any longer.

He shrugged.

“Hehe, I’m kinda jealous about that part of you. You don’t talk much around people, but you get along so well with them and help them out. I’m glad that hasn’t changed from when we were kids.”

“Kel told you everything?” Sunny asked when their conversation lulled a little bit.

“For the most part.” Basil rubbed at his neck a little. “No matter how it, um, ended up, Kel said he had been so happy with how everything had turned out. He hadn’t expected you to actually come out and meet him when you did. ...I’m grateful that you did as well. We’re where we’re at now because of your courage.”

Courage… Sunny supposed that really was what it was. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to leave the house before, he had just grown weary of trying. That monstrous form of Mari sometimes greeted him. He had been haunted by the visions outside of his window facing the backyard. The outside world had become dangerous to him. He wasn’t exactly sure what had compelled him to open the door that day for Kel, but the thought of simply… leaving everything behind without at least seeing Kel had felt wrong. Everything had just bloomed from there.

They arrived back at Kel’s house to see all three siblings out in the front yard with Hector. Kel was teaching his sister to throw the ball for the dog. She couldn’t throw it very far, but Hector eagerly chased it the short distance it would go and would bring it back to her. Hero spotted them first and gave a wave.

“Welcome back. You were gone a lot longer than I had thought. Hi Basil!”

“Hi, guys.”

“You abandoned me!” Kel told them both with a pout. “First Sunny ran away, and then you never brought anyone else back to suffer with me! What the heck, man?”

Hero rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Basil responded, “Sorry, Kel. I didn’t have any homework left, so me and Sunny did some things around town.” Sunny held up his wallet to show that it looked thicker than before. “At least you had Hero to help you and you’re all done, right?”

“That’s what I was saying. Kel did a great job! I knew he could do it. He just needed someone to get him to sit down and do it.” Hero praised. Sally clapped her hands as Hector returned the ball to her once more and licked her face. She squealed and pushed him away. Kel grabbed the ball instead and tossed it, sending the dog after it once more. 

“Yeah, well, at least it’s done!” He agreed cheerfully. The group of friends hung out and chatted while playing with Hector and Sally. Sunny sat on the fence and found his eyes drifting once more back to his old house. It seemed a little different in the daylight. He thought maybe it was a slightly different color than it was before. “What’cha looking at?” Kel asked as he leaned on the fence next to Sunny. “Curious about who lives there?” Sunny didn’t respond, but Kel went on anyway, “They’re an older couple! I’ve actually talked with them a few times. They’re pretty friendly. They’re not, like, super old but their kids are already grown up and out of the house. Their grandkids come over a lot. They actually help us by babysitting Sally when none of us can.”

Ah, so a new family had moved in. The house was definitely too big for just a simple couple. The grandkids must stay quite a bit if they bought such a big house. It was almost surreal to hear about the people living in the house that Sunny and his family had lived in for years. He could still remember when he and Mari had first moved to the neighborhood and had quickly become friends with the boys next door. It felt like a thousand years ago.

“Oh, hey, don’t do that, Sally!” Hero called then, hurrying to his sister to stop her from putting her dirty hands in her mouth. He scooped her up in his arms and said, “I think it’s time to wash up, huh? You haven’t had your afternoon snack and I can hear that tummy growling!” 

Sally laughed a little as she leaned into her brother’s hold. Her pigtails bobbed against her head. “Snackie!” She agreed.

“Snackie for us too?” Kel asked as the group decided to retreat indoors. Hector dashed past the boys to get into the house first, barking excitedly before tackling one of the various ragged stuffed animals on the floor.

“Yes, yes, I’ll grab something for you guys too.” Hero assured them. They all toed off their shoes and placed them on the shoe rack as Hero took Sally off to clean her up. Sunny split off from the others to go upstairs to use the restroom and to properly clean up as well. He wasn’t planning to eat with pond water on his arms. While he was up there, he looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were still a little red-rimmed and he actually had strawberry ice cream on his shoulder. Ugh… he had been going around like that? Embarrassing. He removed his overshirt and left himself with his tank top. He fixed his hair a little before he went into the bedroom to drop his clothing in with Kel’s dirty stuff. He was assured by Kel’s mother that she would take care of the laundry, which kind of embarrassed Sunny who wasn’t sure how he felt about another’s mother washing his clothes, but he ignored that for now.

The fan blew cool air on him. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes at the sensation of it. He felt relaxed. This was nice, he thought. He liked when he was busy even if he hated getting started on doing anything. There was a feeling of accomplishment that came from a long day of hard work. Now he really felt like he could be as lazy as he wanted without feeling like he was letting someone down. 

While he was in the bedroom he went over to his luggage and dug through it for a few moments. He carefully put aside his folded clothing and grabbed his now-familiar photo album out. His finger ran across the engraving of Basil’s name on the metal nameplate before he placed it aside to put his clothes back away. Then he went downstairs with the book. His friends were split between rooms. Kel was setting up what looked like a large playpen for Sally with Basil’s help. Hero was in the kitchen. Sunny joined him to see if he needed any help. Somehow it seemed he had gotten roped into making something for a snack after he had sat Sally down in her highchair to enjoy her own plate of fruits and crackers. He looked at what Hero was making. It looked like grilled cheese and tomato soup. The scent of it made Sunny’s mouth water. He liked cheesy snacks. He didn’t care if he had just eaten a pizza slice not that long ago.

“Is that Basil’s photo album?” Hero asked as he noticed what Sunny was holding. Sunny held it up to confirm it. A small smile appeared on the other’s face. “I didn’t expect you to bring it with you. Thanks for that. Wanna look through it while we eat?”

He actually had other plans for it as well, but he would surprise his friends later. He was a little nervous about it, after all. He had completely forgotten about his, well, hopefully penitence gift that he had prepared for all of them. He had been so caught up in doing everything else that it had kept slipping his mind.

He put the book aside and pointed at the bread. “Gonna help? Thanks! Here, let me scoot over. I’ll cook, you butter.” He moved over to the stove and allowed Sunny to take his place at the cutting board. He had noticed that he had prepared tomatoes too. If Sunny recalled, Basil and Hero liked tomatoes on their grilled cheese, but Kel didn’t. He began to prep the sandwiches and decided against adding tomato to his own even though he liked to have it on his once in a while. The soup would be enough for him. 

The silence was comfortable between them as they worked. The smell of hot butter and cooking bread filled the air. The sizzling covered up some of the talking from Basil and Kel in the other room. Sunny watched Hero work with hungry eyes, already imagining the flavors on his tongue. He wasn’t exactly sure how his friend did it, but everything Hero made tasted great. The soup even looked like it might be homemade.

Hero glanced at him and a wistful expression crossed his face before it was gone. He covered it up with a smile as he said, “I have to admit, I kinda miss cooking like this. You remember what I said about not really having time to do that in college? It’s still pretty accurate. Between me being more frugal with my money and just always busy between studying and classes, I just forget to really do meal prep. I’ve been scolded about it before.”

Sunny tilted his head a little, curious. Scolded? By who?

Hero clearly could read his question in his eyes. “I’ve made a couple of friends at college. Classmates and roommates, y’know? Some of them… I’m impressed at how they manage their time. I’m working on getting better at it. I just wish they’d stop asking me to go to parties.” He gave an awkward laugh and flipped one of the sandwiches in the pan. It was a pretty golden brown. The cheese was starting to seep past the sides and sizzle. “I’m not really a party college kid. You’ve seen me.”

Despite how charismatic and popular Hero no doubt was, Sunny was certain his friend would just feel overwhelmed and exhausted from going to parties. He could balance talking with a bunch of people in different situations, but if college parties were anything like on television then Sunny was sure it would be a horrible environment for Hero. He wasn’t one who could easily say no to people, and it seemed like he was more reserved than he had been when he had been sixteen.

“This is nice, though. Gathering like this and just hanging out… it’s a lot easier. I wonder if it’s just because I’ve known you guys since we were kids.” Hero flipped the other sandwiches now and placed the finished ones aside.

“Is it weird to you?” Sunny asked.

“Huh?” Hero gave him a curious look.

Sunny shrugged a little and tried to think of how to explain it. “...Hanging out with kids?”

“You’re not really kids anymore though, are you?” Hero chuckled a little. Sunny couldn’t refute that. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t like that answer. “I mean… I don’t think it could ever be awkward. Not in that way, anyway. I had friends growing up outside of our little circle, but you guys were always my best friends. The four year age difference didn’t really feel that big all the time. It… Well, it helped that I had Mari with me. You guys  _ were _ still kids, after all, so there were some things you just couldn’t understand at that age.”

Sunny thought of his puppy crush on Aubrey and how he had always wanted her to fall in love with him in the way he had seen Hero and Mari looking at each other. He remembered seeing them sneak a kiss in the kitchen while they had been washing dishes and had thought the kids were busy. He remembered how stressed Mari would get over studying for college and her putting aside children’s games in order to be more of an adult. He hadn’t understood it at all back then. He had only felt like Mari had been going somewhere far away and he hadn’t known why or how to catch up to her. The only one who seemed to understand was Hero, and that was part of the reason why the two of them had been so close.

“Yeah, I understand.” He said.

“Now it’s like… I don’t know, really. I think at some point you just kinda reach an age that no matter how much older you get you don’t really feel like an adult? Looking at you and Kel and Aubrey and Basil… You guys seem as mature as some of the others I meet in college.” Hero finished the sandwiches and placed them all onto the separate plates. Sunny pulled some bowls out from the cabinet so Hero could distribute those as well. “So no, I don’t find it weird to hang out with you guys at all. It feels like coming home.”

Sunny was glad to hear it. He felt the same way, after all. He had never found it weird to hang out with Hero despite him being older. That probably came from having Mari as a playmate for a majority of his life. 

He and Hero carried the dishes out to the coffee table and placed them down before returning to get the photo album and Sally. They also grabbed some glasses and juice to pour for them all. Sally seemed to be finished with her snacks. Hero placed her in the completed playpen before the four boys sat down to eat. “Looks great!” Kel cried, delighted.

“Oh, the photo album!” Basil said as he noticed it in Sunny’s lap. “I didn’t know you had brought that… How nostalgic. I didn’t think to bring the photos I took the other day so you could put them in there, though. Sorry.”

“Eh, we’ve got time.” Kel assured him with a greasy pat on the back. Then he realized what he had done, winced, and grabbed a napkin to wipe his hands with a quick apology. Basil looked like he had given up on his shirt at this point. There were ice cream stains on him too. How had Sunny not noticed earlier?

“Hey so, where’s Aubrey?” Hero asked after a few minutes of them stuffing their faces. “I forgot she wasn’t with you.”

“She had something to do.” Sunny said. “She said she would stop by later, though.”

“So it was just you two hanging out? Lucky.” Kel pouted. “Hey! When dad gets back from work and we can pass Sally onto him, how about we go play that basketball team up I mentioned before? We have the perfect amount!”

“I’m not really good at sports, though.” Basil protested a little.

“Me too.” Sunny agreed. He hadn’t forgotten his terrible attempts the other day.

“We’ll just split you up, then! Between me and Hero, we can make up for any problems!” Kel said confidently.

“And if Aubrey shows up?” Hero asked with an amused smile.

“She can take my place.” Basil offered.

“No way! We’ll do a three-on-two!” Kel took a large gulp of his drink before putting it down with a loud, satisfied sound. “Aubrey and Hero against us three! That’ll be a real challenge!”

Basil laughed a little. “Haha… okay, Kel. Sure.”

“Yeah, I’m down.” Hero agreed.

Sunny didn’t feel very confident, but he was okay with trying, at least. His shoulders felt a little sunburnt, though. He would apply more sunscreen before they went out again that day.

“That actually reminds me… Um, Sunny mentioned wanting to help with my gardening. I was thinking about doing it tomorrow morning. Did you want to come?” Basil asked.

“Hm, sure! Once I finish my morning jog, we can head right over!” Sunny had forgotten that Hero had taken up jogging. Was he trying to increase his stamina? “While we’re at it, maybe you and Aubrey can spend the night? I know we’re going to be staying in the same place this weekend, but it might be easier if we all go over together.”

Basil was startled. His eyes darted away. “I-I, uh, I don’t know. I… would need to ask Polly… I’m not sure if I can…” His voice got softer as he spoke.

“If not today, then maybe tomorrow! You can ask her tonight!” Kel suggested eagerly. His face developed a dreamy expression. “Sleepovers are the best! We can steal all the blankets from Basil’s house and we can make a HUGE fort with it! If we’re smart, we can stretch it between our two beds, Hero! We could even use all your trophies and such for something other than decoration!”

“I’m… not sure how we would manage that, Kel.” Hero said.

“Aw, it’ll be fine!”

“Also, we’d be leaving pretty early on Friday so we can get to the beach at a good time. I’m not sure there would be a point in a sleepover before that.”

“Dang, really? Hmm…”

“Don’t hold back on my account, though.” Basil gave them a timid smile. “You can still ask Aubrey! And we’ll at least have this weekend. It’s not long now!”

“Yeah, we’ll have plenty of time. Don’t worry about it too much, Kel.” Hero rubbed a knuckle quickly into Kel’s hair before he leaned away out of his brother’s retaliating swing. The group laughed to themselves. Sunny had visions of Kel’s grand pillow fort and wondered if they really could somehow achieve it. It might be a fun thing to try out.

Sitting here with all four of them, he understood more what Hero had been saying earlier. None of them were really kids anymore, but he didn’t feel especially old either. All of them had changed and matured in different ways, but he could still see the same group of kids that laughed and played cards together while hiding smiles between bites of cookies. So why did the thought of growing up make his stomach drag a little. And why did the gaps between their sitting spots feel so large when they were already too big to be sitting as they were.

Sunny’s eyes dropped to his grilled cheese and watched the way tomato soup slowly dripped off of it after he had dipped it. The shiny reflection of the daylight coming in from the window looked like an eye in the ripples.

He really missed Mari.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the topic of growing up, here's a [cute, short animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0tCCl-AYvg) for you guys. I will also recommend this [animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3qRzrXfp3s) as well.
> 
> I hope you guys are enjoying this fanfiction! I know that it's pretty slow-paced, but that's exactly what I want out of this. I want to enjoy the moments we have with these characters even in between all of the heavy stuff. They've got many things to talk about, and I can only hope I can approach them in a timely manner that doesn't feel like they're jumping into these topics out of nowhere.
> 
> I also appreciate your thoughts on Sunny and the others in the way they're thinking and feeling. Sunny especially has a lot of complicated emotions going on, most of which he's still not really sure how to handle. Part of that is just because he spent four years repressing everything, but another part is simply because he's still emotionally immature. There's one issue I plan to address in this which I'll have fun approaching.
> 
> Anyway, feel free to let me know anything you wanna say! Have a great day!


	21. Stream

By the time Aubrey arrived at the house the sun was going down and the job of babysitting had been passed onto the relevant adult. She was told that the boys were still in the house and were upstairs and that she could just go on up, so she did. She didn’t expect to find all of them crowded at the window as Sunny was in the middle of climbing out of it. They all froze and looked at Aubrey when they heard the door shut behind her.

“What… the heck is going on here?” She asked, looking startled.

“Um…” Basil looked back towards Sunny, who met his eyes.

“You see…” Hero began as well, but he was sweating under Aubrey’s sharp gaze. Sunny realized that the situation probably didn’t look great. The angle they were at made it seem like he was being shoved out of the window.

“Hurry up!” Kel called from below, waving his hands up at Sunny. “What’s the hold up?”

“Oh jeez, Kel is down there. I should’ve known.” Aubrey said as she approached Sunny and stuck her head out past him to glare down at Kel. “What stupid stuff are you making Sunny do?”

“It’s not stupid! It’s fun! And I was proving a point!” Kel said with a huff. Sunny struggled on the tiny ledge he was standing on. Kel was right in that it was harder to do this with shoes on. Just a little bit of pushing from Aubrey so she could look past the windowsill was enough for make Sunny’s foot slip. There were cries all around him as hands latched onto his shirt and arms. Panic made his body turn cold as he feared the drop to the bottom and kicked his legs, looking for purchase.

“We got you!” Hero assured him. His hand was wrapped around Sunny’s wrist while Aubrey clung to Sunny’s back. Basil had the girl around the waist from where she had half-fallen out in the effort to catch Sunny.

“We won’t let you fall.” She assured next to his ear.

“It’s not that far, I swear!” Kel called. Sunny could feel the bottom of his feet getting touched. “Just calm down and drop him! I’ll catch him!”

“Are you sure?” Hero asked. Sunny could feel himself calming down a little. He felt like they had firm grips on him. He dared to look down and saw that Kel was right there.

“I’m sure!” Kel looked determined and held his arms up once more. “Drop, Sunny!”

“Okay. Aubrey, you and I’ll let go. Then Basil, you help me pull Aubrey in.”

“Right!” Basil nodded.

“One, two, three!” Sunny was dropped and fell right into Kel’s arms. They wrapped tightly around Sunny’s midsection with only a little bit of clunkiness as his arm hit Kel’s head. Sunny tried to catch his breath and looked up to watch as Aubrey was pulled back in. It really didn’t look to be that far. Then he looked at Kel, who beamed at him.

“Perfect catch! Hehe!” Sunny’s hands were shaking just a little bit from the adrenaline, but he could feel he was secure where he was. His fear was gone. He grabbed Kel’s shoulder and wiggled in a way that clearly said he wanted down. Kel lowered him to standing and made sure he was good to stand before he looked back up at the others and called, “Alright! Next!” His eyes sparkled with pride.

“We’re not jumping, stupid!” Aubrey called back to him now that she was back inside.

“Oh c’mon! I know you’ve wanted to do it, Aubrey! You chicken?”

“I’m not a chicken!”

“We can just take the stairs.” Basil offered, but it was too late. Aubrey was already crawling out of the window. Kel looked thrilled as he laughed to himself but still moved to catch her as needed. “W-Wait, you’re in a skirt!” Basil tried to protest.

“I’m wearing tights. It’s fine.” She said as she climbed outside and stood on the ledge to jump down. Her teal eyes were hard with determination. Sunny stepped out of the way knowing that if he tried to catch her that he would probably be crushed. Better to leave it to Kel who had a lot more strength. “Touch me and you die. Move out of my way!”

“They really don’t change.” Hero complained good-naturedly even as he watched Aubrey carefully. The girl dropped to the ground without needing Kel’s assistance, landing confidently. She stood up and spun on him to point at the taller boy, poking her finger to his chest.

“I told you I wasn’t scared.”

“Haha, don’t act like you haven’t done it before.” Kel stuck his tongue out at her, cheeky. “I knew you could do it fine.” Aubrey huffed and didn’t respond to him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You gonna do it, Hero? Basil?”

“I’m good.” Sunny knew for a fact that Basil wouldn’t do it.

Hero shook his head. “I can’t get myself out the window anymore. We’ll take the back door.” He put the screen back in the window and closed it before both of the boys disappeared.

“What exactly were you two doing?” Aubrey asked, turning to her friends.

“I was showing Sunny that I could still jump out of the window. We thought about doing it before, but backed down. Was it fun, Sunny?” Kel asked. Sunny hesitated before nodding. He had jumped from higher heights, after all. The scare of falling before he was ready was what had really gotten him. “Oh! Quick, let’s run into the forest before Hero and Basil show up!”

“What? Why-?” She didn’t get a chance to finish her question before Kel was already dashing off into the forest in the backyard. She sighed with exasperation before Aubrey shot a small smirk at Sunny. “Why not, right?”

“They’ll catch up.” Sunny agreed before he glanced behind them. He couldn’t see Hero or Basil yet, so he and Aubrey took off after Kel. Despite how Aubrey had protested, she giggled a little at the devious way they had abandoned the others. Sunny was brought back to when they were eleven and escaping one bare feet into the forest instead of doing homework. The autumnal leaves on the ground had crunched beautifully under their feet. Their colorful clothing had done nothing to camouflage them during their escape, but it was the thrill of the chase that they had liked the most. They had gotten in a lot of trouble, though, because they had ended up getting a little lost and Aubrey had started crying. The parents had found them only about an hour later, but it had felt a lot longer. Now Sunny had a better grasp of the forest and even how to get to the park from where they were.

They ran until they reached a shallow stream. A lot of the flora had grown here and made it more wild in appearance. The stream bed was mostly dried up except for the gentle flow of water that was deep enough to come up to Sunny’s ankles. A tree trunk had fallen across the top of the dried bed and had soft, green moss growing on it. The water was clear, so Sunny hopped down onto the dried part of the bed to kneel and watch the water travel over worn and smooth stones.

“Shit.” Aubrey suddenly cursed as she hopped down next to Sunny. “Maybe running in here barefoot wasn’t the best idea. I got kinda cut up.” Since Sunny was down there, he touched her ankle so he could see. She startled a little at the touch, but lifted his foot. It didn’t look like there were really many cuts, but her foot was a little pink. Sunny could only imagine what she could’ve stepped on while running like that.

“Whoops.” Kel appeared behind them as Sunny gave Aubrey a thumbs up to show her that things looked fine to him. “I forgot you didn’t have your shoes.”

“Should we have just run away like that?” She asked as she glanced back the way they came. There were no signs of Kel’s house any longer. “They won’t even know where to find us.”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine. It’s a straight shot here, and where else would we have gone?”

“The basketball court.” Sunny suggested since that was originally going to be their destination before they had all been caught up with window jumping.

“Oh… yeah, that’s right. Um…”

“Eh, we’ll find them later.” Aubrey stepped into the water and watched the flow roll over her ankles. She shot a small smirk to Kel. “You finish your homework?”

Kel’s cheeks puffed out. “Yeah, no thanks to you! I had been hoping for a partner in my suffering.” Sunny took off his shoes and socks before he shoved his socks into his pocket. He waded into the water as well. It was a bit chilly, but felt good compared to the heat of the day.

“Psh, you’re fine.” Aubrey waved him off. “At least you got it done. I  _ wish _ I could’ve had Hero’s help. There’s no way I’m doing my homework right now anyway.”

“Just ask him whenever. He’s here until the end of summer since he said he finished his volunteer work.” Kel, not wanting to be left out, also took his shoes off to join them in the water. Sunny decided to climb up onto the tree trunk instead. He wanted to feel the moss on his feet. He slipped a little, but he made it up fine. He felt tall as he stood above his friends.

“Yeah, I probably will. Later, I guess.” She walked a few paces into a slightly deeper section of water so it came up to mid-calf. Kel jumped in the water and made Aubrey yell in shock as she was splashed. “Hey! Watch it!”

Kel snickered, enjoying it too much. “Oh!” He suddenly remembered. “Did you want to spend the night tonight? We’re gonna head over to Basil’s early in the day to work on his garden stuff. Basil’s not staying, by the way. He can’t.”

“Can’t?” Aubrey reached for Kel’s hair and tugged out his hair tie. It came easily. He didn’t seem bothered as she used it instead to put her hair up in a messy bun. Sunny thought she looked cute like that. Mature in a way he wasn’t expecting.

There was a sigh next to his ear as he turned his head to see Mari standing next to him.  _ “Coloring our hair was such a good choice. Aubrey looks so cute with that color pink. I’ve always loved her hair.” _ When had she gotten there? Well, it didn’t matter. Mari was allowed to go wherever she wanted. It wasn’t uncommon for her to beat Sunny and his friends to places. He wondered if she was really a ghost or if she was Sunny’s imagination. When Mari met his curious gaze, her smile became mischievous, though she didn’t say anything more.

“He can’t ask permission since he’s already going away with us in a couple of days.” Kel shrugged. “What about you? You’re welcome.”

Aubrey was thinking about it when they heard their names called out from not too far away. Sunny was spotted first since he was up the highest. His eyes met Basil’s before the boy pointed out the friend group to Hero. The boys hurried over to join them. “Jeez, don’t just run off like that!” Hero scolded, panting just a little bit. How long had they been searching? It couldn’t have been too long. 

_ “Hey now, Hero, don’t worry too much. They’re big kids now!”  _ Mari reprimanded, sitting on the tree trunk and swinging her legs back and forth.

“Oh, you brought my shoes. Thanks, Hero.” Aubrey joined the two of them and took her shoes from Hero. She didn’t put them on as she instead chose to hang in the water longer.

“You could’ve told us first.” Basil said. “We almost went all the way to the park first to find you, but we kinda heard Kel’s voice first.”

“It was a spur of the moment.” Kel grinned and tucked his arms behind his head. “I was just asking Aubrey if she wanted to spend the night.”

“Oh yeah?” Hero decided to join the others as he tugged off his shoes and rolled up his pants until they were above his knees. Sunny climbed off of the tree and gave Basil a curious look, encouraging him to join as well. In the end, all the friends ended up in the water. They carried their shoes and followed the water upstream as they talked. “We have to let mom know as soon as possible, then. I think she’s bringing dinner home.”

“I don’t really want to cause a problem…” Aubrey rubbed at the back of her neck. “After all, won’t it be… I don’t know, weird?”

“Weird?” The group spread out a little as the smooth rocks occasionally gave way to much deeper parts of the stream. Sunny tried his best to stay in the way without the risk of it wetting his pants.

She huffed and looked embarrassed to explain. “I’m gonna have to take a bath at your house and stuff… and we’re nearly adults now, so wouldn’t it be…”

“It’s not that weird.” Kel assured her. “I mean, you know we aren’t going to do anything to you, right?”

Aubrey’s cheeks turned red, though now Sunny had the distinct impression there was offense thrown in there. “YOU-!”

Hero hurried to cut in, “And we’ve all basically seen each other naked in the past.”

“Wait,  _ what _ ?” The shocked cry came from both Aubrey and Kel, who turned to Hero with wide eyes. Hero appeared surprised and then kind of embarrassed that he had brought up the topic at all. “When the heck was this?”

“You don’t remember? Well, uh, I guess it was a while ago. And you were all pretty young.” Hero slipped a little in the water but caught Sunny’s shoulder before he went down. He gave a thankful smile before he said, “It was not long after we met Aubrey and a couple years before Basil moved to town. I think I was… Yeah, I was twelve because it was Mari’s birthday and she was just turning twelve. That must mean you guys were about seven and eight. Our three families got together and decided to go on a hike up some mountain nearby and spend the night at a camping site. I can’t remember exactly why Mari chose that, though. Sunny?”

Sunny shook his head, genuinely curious about the story. He barely remembered this, though he did remember camping with his sister before. He knew his family hadn’t done it very often, though. Neither of his parents had been big fans of camping. It was rare for him to hear stories about events he doesn’t remember well.

“Really? Well, haha, I think you were asleep for a large chunk of it. I guess you wouldn’t really remember. What about you guys?”

“I think?” Kel thought about it. “It was a long time ago and we went camping and stuff a lot. Oh!” he cried out, “I remember there was a really cold stream we went swimming in! There was this huge flat rock that was like a small water slide!” He laughed to himself. “I remember that, and…” He continued to think to himself.

“Yeah, I think I remember that rock! And sliding too far before Mari grabbed me.” Aubrey’s eyes widened further. “Wow, I can barely remember that. That was… Wait. Wait, wasn’t that when…?”

“Yeah!” Hero laughed as the group continued their trek. “It’s coming back to me now. None of our parents told us to bring bathing suits since they hadn’t expected we would want to swim in the freezing mountain water. But the hike had been long and it looked too fun, so we had begged to do it anyway. So dad just said, ‘If you want to swim, then you’ll have to do it in your underwear so you don’t soak your clothes! It’s still a long hike!’”

“Oh my god, and you did it?” Basil asked, smiling as he listened to the story.

Hero nodded. “Kel and Aubrey didn’t even hesitate. I think it was probably that rock you mentioned, hahaha, they just stripped right to their underwear and jumped in only to scream about how cold it was. Didn’t stop you guys at all, though!”

“I’d never swam in a mountain stream before.” Aubrey looked a little flustered.

“I joined you guys because you made it look fun even though I hated how cold it was.” He shuddered at the memory. “Then Mari joined in and tried to get Sunny to join, but he took one step in the water and just said ‘No’ and went back to his parents.” That got all of them to laugh. Sunny could see himself doing something like that.

“Was Mari only in her underwear too?” Kel asked.

“N-No! Not exactly!” Hero didn’t look at Sunny as he spoke, “She, um, wore her shirt.” That didn’t really go against what Kel had asked, though. Sunny couldn’t really see his sister doing something like that, but when they had been younger Mari had been freer to be a little more wild. He could imagine that she wouldn’t want to lose the opportunity to play with the others.

“And that’s the day Hero developed a crush.” Kel teased.

“No! Kel!”

“Wow, Hero, so smooth.” Aubrey rolled her eyes even as she hid her smile behind her hand.

“Ah jeez, don’t mess with me. Things weren’t like that back then.” He took the teasing in stride, though, as the group continued. The sun was really starting to set, then, casting shadows everywhere.

“I just always assumed you and Mari had crushes on each other since forever.” The girl admitted. Basil dashed ahead of them along the bank. “It seemed like it.”

“It… Well, I can’t say you’re entirely wrong?” He sighed at whatever he was thinking about. His eyes turned just a little sad. “It was hard not to like her, you know?”

“Yeah.” Aubrey agreed quietly, giving Hero an unreadable but soft look. “I get that.”

Sunny wanted to change the atmosphere as he saw Basil preparing his camera for a snapshot. So he said, “Mari always had a big crush on Hero.”

“WHAT?!” Hero yelped, cheeks flaring pink immediately. The picture was snapped but it was covered by the sound of Kel’s laughter and Aubrey going “Oooooh!”

Sunny heard Mari giggle quietly from behind them at her brother’s devious decision.

“D-Don’t say that, Sunny! She, uh…” Hero tried, but Sunny clarified,

“She always liked you.” He met Hero’s shaky gaze, “I think in the same way that you mean, though.”

There was a moment where it felt like Hero abruptly pulled away from them, but then he snapped back like a rubberband. Something settled in his gaze, and his embarrassment burnt off to reveal gratitude even under his complicated smile. He ducked his head. Sunny wondered if he had made the right choice saying that.

“That was a good picture.” Basil said as the group caught up to where he was standing. That effectively changed the subject as he held up his camera and smiled.

“I keep forgetting the camera.” Aubrey slapped her forehead. “Dammit.”

“It helps to carry a bag around.” He offered. “Then you always have it.”

“I’ll try to remember that. You took a picture?”

“Hehe, you’ll have to see when it develops!”

They continued in a peaceful silence for a little bit. Sunny purposefully plopped his feet flat-footed into the water just to hear the noise and see the water scatter. The stones were starting to hurt his feet from walking on them for too long, but the cool water helped to soothe them. He didn’t doubt they would be sore in the morning. He would have to soak them in warm water or something later.

“Hold up.” Kel stopped them suddenly, holding his hand out and waving it. “Look! Ducks!” Sunny ducked to look under Kel’s arm to see for himself. A little bit away where the water pooled more, there were a pair of ducks floating. They hadn’t seemed to have noticed the group of them.

Sunny pulled out his camera and took a picture. Hopefully there was enough light to be able to make out the picture later. The flash on the camera didn’t seem to be anything amazing.

“Let’s not disturb them. How about we head back? It’s getting pretty late anyway.” Hero suggested.

“So much for going to the park today.” Basil joked as they turned around and headed back the way they came.

“There’s always tomorrow, right?” Kel didn’t seem bothered. “We’ll play together yet! How about after we do the gardening stuff?”

“For someone who doesn’t want to do it, you sure seem excited.” Aubrey said.

“Gardening’s boring! But as long as we’re hanging out, it’ll probably be at least a little fun!” He beamed. The mood was good as they walked back and simply enjoyed the evening music of the crickets. Sunny could almost imagine they were walking on railroad tracks instead of in the water.

He decided to break the silence himself, “Did I ever tell you all about Headspace?”

“Headspace?” Kel asked.

“Yeah, I remember it. Some, anyway.” Basil said.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of it.” Aubrey said.

“You know it, Basil?” Hero glanced at the boy.

Basil nodded. “It’s like your imaginary world, right Sunny? It’s where he goes when he zones out a lot.”

“Really?” Kel said, surprised. “You have an imaginary world? That’s so cool!”

Sunny nodded and said, “I like going on adventures there that I can’t do in real life. There was one time we all went into a forest like this one. It was called Pyrefly Forest. It was full of spiders.”

Hero visibly flinched. “Uh… Spiders?”

“They were monsters with spider traits. Like spiders that looked like cats, potted plant spiders, bunny spiders…”

He shuddered and covered his ears, “Ugh, no! I don’t even want to think about it!”

Kel rolled his eyes at his brother. “Man, how did you manage to get dream Hero to go into a place like  _ that _ ? Is he braver than real Hero?”

“He really needs to get over that fear.” Aubrey muttered under her breath.

“Weren’t you  _ also _ afraid of spiders, Sunny?” Basil questioned. “Are you not scared of them anymore?”

“Not like I used to be.” Sunny still didn’t like spiders, but he wasn’t deathly afraid of them anymore. “And… we went there because we were looking for Basil. He had gotten lost.”

“Aww, that’s really brave of you guys!”

Hero tried to move away from the topic of spiders, “You went on a lot of adventures with us in your head, Sunny?”

“Yeah.” He hesitated and then confessed, “It was pretty much the only thing I did in my house. After Mari, I mean.” The atmosphere changed immediately as Sunny felt all of their eyes on him.

“You… spent that time dreaming?” Kel clarified, sounding confused. “Did you just sleep the whole time, or did you daydream or something?”

“I slept.” Sunny watched his feet so he wouldn’t slip. “I couldn’t bear to do much else.” He tried to steer it away from going too deep into the topic of his rather blatant depression, “We went on a lot of fun adventures.”

“What kind?” Kel seemed to be the only one genuinely interested. The others looked uncomfortable. Sunny regretted bringing anything up.

“Traveling, mostly. I’ll… tell you about them sometime, if you want to know. Later.” He wanted this all to be over.

“Sounds like a plan! I’d love to hear more! You’ve always had a cool imagination, Sunny!”

They arrived back to where they began and dried their feet before putting their shoes back on. They headed back to the house without much to say. Sunny kept his eyes averted. He had opened up about his secret world, and honestly it felt like he had ruined the good mood. He shouldn’t have said anything. He had messed up the timing about it. He should’ve thought things through better.

“I’ve gotta go check on Bun-Bun and get some clothes to spend the night.” Aubrey said as they walked into the backyard. “I’ll come back in a little while, okay?”

“Oh, let me walk with you. I have to head home too.” Basil said quickly. Aubrey didn’t respond but she did nod.

“I can see Mom’s home, so I’m gonna fill her in on the plan tonight. We’ll see you later, Aubrey.” Hero gave her a short wave before he took off his shoes and went inside of the house, announcing that they were back.

“We’ll see you tomorrow!” Kel pat Basil’s shoulder. “I’ll leave the door unlocked for you, Aubrey!”

“Yeah, see you guys.” Aubrey and Basil left then with a wave. Sunny waved goodbye to them as well.

For a few moments neither boy moved. Then Kel turned to Sunny with a small relieved smile. “Today was great.” He said. Sunny finally lifted his eyes to look at him. “It’s really starting to feel like before, isn’t it? I’m really glad you agreed to spend the week here, Sunny. And this weekend’s going to be amazing!” Sunny didn’t respond. Kel threw a comforting arm over his shoulder and walked him to the door. “I’m serious.” He said. “Don’t look like that. Have some faith in yourself, Sunny. Everything will be okay, I promise.”

“I hope so.” He responded quietly. He wanted to believe those words this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That awkward moment when your foot takes up residence in your mouth.
> 
> Here are a [couple](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK2uAgXwJfM) [video recommendations!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3qRzrXfp3s)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, any and all comments are welcome and greatly appreciated! Especially in a small fandom such as this one <3


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